Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine series of original 1940 German occupation of Guernsey identity cards (35), or “identitaetskarte”, a typical example being that officially numbered ‘20825’ and in the name of Alfred de la Mare Valpied, with swastika stamp of the Guernsey Feldkommandantur, and portrait photograph (also with another, separate portrait photograph of Valpied, the reverse dated 30 May 1945); the remaining 34 Identity Cards of a similar nature and with equal scope for research (see footnote), the recipients being: Mary Domaille, Thomas Domaille, Elise Gerault (nee Domaille), Neva Randle (nee Domaille) and Frederick Randle (all one family with birth dates ranging from 1859 to 1915); Edward Tourtel, Irene Tourtel and Mary Ann Priaulx (all one family with birth dates ranging from 1869 to 1906, the latter believed to be a maiden aunt); Frederick Lacey (originally from Dorset); Harold Poole; Edmund Gaudion (also with his Guernsey National Registration Card); Wilson Le Lacheur and Marian Le Lacheur (also with the latter’s Guernsey National Registration Card); Lydia Falla; Eunice Le Prevost; Hannah Wheeler (originally from Yorkshire); Lilian Mansell; Edith Hall; Basil Webb; Ernest Dumaresq; Kenneth Martel; Herbert Brouard (also with his Guernsey National Registration Card); Freda Goddard (widowed and remarried, nee Ogier and originally Duquemin); Ralph Tachon and Dulcie Tachon (the former with his Guernsey National Registration Card); Edith Chapman; Charles Ogier; Christine Fallaize; John Loveridge; Claude Le Huray; Phyllis Hutchinson; Margaret England; Cyril Hubert (almost certainly ex-736 Private Cyril Hubert of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, who was evacuated as a result of an enemy gas attack in March 1918) and Rita Hubert; together with an original edition of Poems in Captivity, by F. A. Hovil (late Lieutenant, Royal Guernsey Light Infantry), no date, published by Arthur H. Stockwell, London (Hovil was posted missing, believed wounded, in 1918), one or two of the Identity Cards in worn condition but generally very sound, a most unusual and interesting archive with plenty of scope for research (Lot) £400-500

By way of example:

Alfred de la Mare Valpied, who was born in October 1887, was a widower resident at “The Nook” in Saumarez Road, St. Martin’s when originally registered by the Germans, but later moved to “Mont Bel Vineries” in Belmont Road, St. Peter Port (above identity card refers). His former address is not without interest, for, as early as 1941, some residents of St. Martin’s boldy drew ‘V’ (for Victory) signs around the parish, and even besmeared a German street sign, actions that were classed by the Feldkommandantur as sabotage. In reprisal, two men from the parish were thereafter ordered to stand guard over the besmeared sign from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and radios were confiscated from a number of local households. Valpied was no stranger to confrontation with the German military, having served as a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry in the Great War (Diex Aix: God Help Us, The Guernseymen Who Marched Away 1914-18, by Major Edwin Parks, refers).

N.B.: The introduction of “Identitaetskarte” in the occupied Channel Islands was hastened by the arrival of five British officers landed on clandestine missions on Guernsey between July and September 1940. One of them was immediately captured but the others remained at large for a considerable time; sold with a copy of the Channel Islands Occupation Review No. 20, in which appears a fascinating article by Ken Tough, explaining the origins and development of the enemy’s Identity Card system.