The civilian and military social history of the Channel Islands during the period 1914-1919 can be told via items of mail and ephemera which still exist after nearly 100 years. Although it must be said that the number of items coming onto the market is decreasing each year it is still possible to make a good representative collection relatively easily.

The Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney, being self governing, had their own militias to defend their own island.  Jersey had The Royal Militia Island of Jersey (RMIJ), Guernsey had the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry (RGLI) and Royal Guernsey Artillery and Engineers (RGA & E) militias and in Alderney there was the Artillery.

However the overall responsibility for their defence was in the hands of the British Crown, not the British government. Naturally for practical reasons the King, as head of the armed forces, passed that responsibility over to parliament via the Chief of Staff who, in turn, stationed a battalion of regular British army regiments on each island. These garrison troops would be relieved at regular intervals. The regiments in the islands when the war started were the South Staffs., Royal Irish Rifles and Yorkshire Light Infantry.

Much of the correspondence to and from the islands is in French as many islanders spoke only the local island patois but also prior to the First World War there were many French nationals working in the islands mainly in the hotels and in agriculture.

At the outbreak of the war most of the French males on the islands were called back to France for military service and the garrison troops returned to England and Ireland.

Many men from the militias plus many other islanders volunteered to serve their King in British Forces both with regular army regiments and, being islanders, the Royal Navy. It was not long before many of these men found themselves at the front-lines in Belgium and France and mail between them and the islands was soon flowing with ever increasing amounts.

As the war progressed casualties became heavier with more and more men being wounded, killed or captured. This drainage of troops caused many problems of recruitment on the mainland, and the governing bodies (The States) in each island thought their citizens should do their bit to help alleviate some of these problems. Therefore both the Bailiwicks passed Military Service Acts which meant that all men of military age were conscripted unless they were already employed in a vital job.

In Guernsey the RGLI became a regiment, with two Battalions, of the British Army (one of only two new regiments to be formed during the war, the other being the Welsh Guards) and sent its 1st battalion to serve in France while the 2nd battalion stayed at home in reserve.

It was somewhat different in Jersey as, when the Military Act was brought in the RMIJ was suspended for the rest of the war and many of its men did not wait to be assigned for duty by the island’s military powers. They instead volunteered direct to the regular army where they served in many different regiments including Canadian regiments.

The remaining ex-RMIJ men and the civilians called up under the Act formed the newly founded Royal Jersey Garrison Battalion (RJGB) and the 110th Company, Royal Garrison Artillery. Neither of the formations served overseas.

Late in 1917 a French seaplane base was established in Guernsey’s St Peter Port harbour while in Jersey a camp for German prisoners of war was built at the western end of the island. Items of mail still exist from both these establishments as it does from British prisoner of war camps, internment camps and hospitals on the Continent.

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