Mrs Forster would later become the first woman to sit in the States.
Family
Born in 1907, the daughter of Vincent Le Druillenec and Sainte Francoise Sangan, Ivy Le Druillenec was educated at Les Landes School, St Ouen. She worked with her sister in the family business, La Fontaine Stores, Millais, and then met her husband, Arthur Forster, a soldier in the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry who was camping at Les Landes.
She move with him to Aldershot and their only son, Rex, was born there before they returned to Jersey and Arthur jointly founded estate agents H A Gaudin and Company.
The family stayed in Jersey at the Evacuation and during the German Occupation the Forsters helped escaped Russian slave workers and harboured one of them, George Koslov, in their attic for almost two years.
Escaped prisoners
However, it was when her sister, Louisa Gould, were reported to the Germans for harbouring another Russian than she was put on trial for her involvement, and sentenced to prison and deportation.
She was ill, and at the General Hospital Ray Osmont managed to convince the Germans that she had a contagious disease and should not travel, so she escaped the fate of her siblings who were sent to concentration camps.
In 1948 she had become an accomplished after-dinner speaker and was encouraged by the Bailiff, Sir Alexander Coutanche to stand for the States, becoming elected as a deputy for St Helier No 2 District and the first woman in the States.
She died at the age of 90 in 1997.
Family tree
