Francis de Lisle Bois

1962, newly appointed Deputy Bailiff

Lisle Bois served Jersey as Law Draftsman, States Greffier and Deputy Bailiff

Family

Francis de Lisle Bois was born in St Saviour, Jersey in 1908, the son of Francis John Bois and Beatrice Marie Le Blancq. He was their fourth child and only son. He was travelling back to Jersey with his elder sister Elaine in 1924 on the ss Lorina when he found his father dead on the vessel.

He married Elizabeth Maud Pearce on 24 August 1944 and they had five children. The wedding was filmed in 16mm on a camera and with film that had been concealed from the Germans and is the only cine film showing members of Jersey's wartime government, the Superior Council, in particular Bailiff Alexander Coutanche and Attorney General Walter Duret Aubin.

The film underwent quite an adventure to be processed. Taken to Germany by a member of the British Army of Occupation after Liberation, it was passed on to the US Army, who processed it, and then onto Switzerland, being returned to Jersey by Swiss friends of the family.

Legal career

The early death of his father made him further determined to follow him in a legal career after studying at Oxford University. He was an outstanding mathematician at Victoria College and won a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, where he read law.

He returned to Jersey and joined his uncle George Walter Bois in the family law practice, Bois and Bois, in Hill Street, being called to the Jersey bar in 1931. Alongside his private legal work he was employed by the States as law draftsman. The legal profession were supposed to take turns drafting laws but Lisle Bois ended up being the only one carrying this out. In the end the Island depended on him for drafting legislation. He was Greffier of the States during a period of constitutional change after the Second World War.

Deputy Bailiff

A crisis in the succession to the island's highest offices in 1962, following the retirement of Lord Coutanche and the early death of Cecil Stanley Harrison led to his agreeing to a request by Bailiff Sir Robert Le Masurier to become Deputy Bailiff, a post he held with distinction for six years. On his retirement in 1968 he was commissioned to write a Constitutional History of Jersey, a work which remains an authoritative text on local law.

Interests

Lisle Bois, as he was universally known, was a keen amateur photographer and cinematographer. His films of family and public occasions now form an important part of the Jersey Film Archive and many of his still photographs are in the collection of La Société Jersiaise. He was a pioneer in aspects of film photography and one of the first users of Kodachrome.

He was also an author, producing Walks for motorists, which became the definitve guide for Sunday afternoon walks for hundreds of its readers, and also an authoritative History of St Saviour's Church, which he served as almoner and churchwarden from 1942-1957. He was an executive committee member of La Société Jersiaise, and contributor to its annual bulletin, and a vice-president of the National Trust for Jersey.

He had various activities after retiring as Deputy Bailiff. He was on the board of Rediffusion and for a time he was chairman of the Ann Street Brewery. He was the founding president of the Jersey Film Society and the first Jersey Arts Council.

In 1956 he was made an OBE, ironically the same honour which had been rejected by his father.

Wife

His wife Betty was a keen family historian and was very active in transcribing church records of baptisms, marriages and funerals as a member of the Channel Island Family History Society