13th May 1945
Traffic returns to the “right” side of the road
Throughout the occupation, the Channel Islands had been moved to German time and traffic had been switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. On 13 May 1945, less than a week after liberation, churches in Jersey held thanksgiving celebrations and traffic returned to what most would have considered the “right” side of the road: the left.
“Every church and chapel was filled by men, women and children, many of them wearing rosettes in the national colours,” The Times reported two days later. “A hymn written and composed for the occasion by two Jersey men was sung at many of the services. Thereafter crowds watched the unloading and dispersal of the military and civil stores until midnight, when all traffic on the streets once again changed to the left hand side.”
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Other events that occured in May
Disco doorman is sentenced to death for murder
- The Royal Court sentenced a 23-year-old man to hang for the murder of Judith Harris, who had been found battered in an alley.
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Jersey’s open-air swimming pool opens
- The Jersey Times described the outdoor swimming pools opening as “one of the most brilliant functions witnessed in our island for some time”.
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Newspaper plane crashes at Jersey Airport
- Two crew had a lucky escape when their Fokker F-27 crashed on its final approach to Jersey. The plane had been delayed by bad weather.
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Murdered Zsuzsanna Basenyei last seen alive
- Hungarian national Zsuzsanna Basenyei was last seen alive on 10 May 2018. Six days later, her body was discovered at La Pulec.
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