大象传媒

Roy and Angela Bougourd interviewed by John Gaisford 12/3/05.
Video recording transcribed by John David 27/9/05

Roy Bougourd. I remember the bonfire that was lit saying it was the end of the war, and my dad set about and made two wooden suitcases, and then my mum and dad made twelve loaves of Branston Pickle sandwiches, to fill the suitcases, my brother has still got one of the suitcases, that鈥檚 what kept us going on the boat coming back home.
I鈥︹�︹��. How soon after the bonfires was this?
Angela Bougourd. Well we didn鈥檛 come back until November, and it was a bit of a traumatic trip, I think it took two or three days, we came back on the 鈥淚sle of Jersey鈥� and we had to go towards the coast of France, it was really, really rough, it took rather a long time, but we made it.
Roy Bougourd. We were actually on one of the first boats back. Again, that鈥檚 very clear to me coming back, arriving at the White Rock with all the crowds lined up, because everybody wasn鈥檛 quite sure who was coming on which boat, I think. I remember coming down the gangplank and walking up the White Rock and my dad running out of the crowd with a cap on, I remember that distinctly, he was a very thin man, and he looked very like pictures of those days, with a cap and a suit, and he ran out of the crowd, and of course my mother recognised him, but we had not even seen any pictures of him, because there was virtually no communication other than Red Cross messages, and he booked a taxi for us to go home, which was quite lavish in those days, and it was a friend that we came to know afterwards, a Mr Nicolle driving the cab, and as we were driving down where the White Rock meets the Esplanade 鈥� of course there was no roundabout then 鈥� I distinctly remember a couple of lorry-loads of German soldiers all sat in the back in grey uniform, looking very miserable, and that was the first time of course that we鈥檇 actually seen the enemy, having been up in Yorkshire. We drove along the Banques, and I remember driving down Bulwer Avenue, with very high fences down there, and behind the fences were all the guns and lorries and armaments from the German Occupation, where Norman Piette is now, barriered off, obviously, and it was the first real signs of German activity and German warfare that we had seen. And of course those stood there for a while till they were taken away and I believe dumped out at sea, which was , looking back, perhaps not the best thing, it would have made a very good museum. And just going back to any evidence of the war, we were not actually in a main town, we were out on the edge of the moors, near this village, Baildon, I do remember quite a lot of activity up there, quite a lot of training camps up there, and we used to climb up the wall and look over and watch them, and they were doing bayonet practice, with these dummies hanging from ropes, and they鈥檇 all go charging up with their bayonets, yelling like mad, and we thought that was great fun. That wasn鈥檛 real war, that was pretend war, and I suppose the other evidence that we had a war is barrage balloons and the girls, lady soldiers or whatever you called them, ATS, operated them and when there was an air-raid they used to go and wind the handles and let these balloons go up in the air and hope the planes would fly into them, I presume, so that鈥檚 war time activity, and the other thing, we all carried gas-masks wherever we went, our little box slung across our shoulder, going to school, going to church, you were always told to wear your gas-mask if there was any activity going on, such as I remember one day there were soldiers throwing tear-gas around, being young and stupid, I thought that鈥檚 not really a problem, tears were streaming down my cheeks because I had forgotten to put my gas-mask on. Its odd events like that that stand out
I鈥︹�︹��. Having left here when you were three, did you recognise your father?
Roy Bougourd. I certainly didn鈥檛, no. My mother did.
It鈥檚 and odd thing to happen. It鈥檚 almost like being adopted by somebody. It took a while. He鈥檇 kept some of our toys, amazingly, and when we got in the house, which was a tiny little cottage, and incidentally he was living between soldiers who were billeted either side in this row of cottages, and he was a very British person, my dad, when we walked in, in the vases on the mantelpiece there were Union Jacks flying, and the Germans had actually been in the house, and he remained very loyal, and when we went in, it was a very small cottage, much smaller than the house we were living in in the UK, but he had managed to keep it all together, given away a lot of our stuff, but there were some toys, and I have still got a 鈥淒aily Mail鈥� truck about this big and that was sitting there waiting for me to come home to. But all totally strange to me.
I鈥︹�︹��. Did you go back to Sark
Angela Bougourd. No we came back to Guernsey, because we did not have any house of our own, so we came back to sponge off relatives. We were a big family.

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