Philip Mauger de Veulle

Philip Mauger de Veulle

Springfield House, Trinity, where the de Veulles moved on their return to Jersey

This page is based on an article by Philip de Veulle's son John in Volume 2 of A Biographical Dictionary of Jersey

Philip Mauger de Veulle was born on 13 February 1903 in London, the younger child of Philip Clement de Veulle and Harriet Esther, nee Mauger.

His father had moved from Jersey to London some years earlier and, when he fell ill, the family moved back to Jersey, living with Philip's maternal grandfather, Jean Mauger, of Springfield House, Trinity. Philip and his sister Hetty went to Trinity School and as they had spent their early childhood holidays in Jersey and learned Jerriais while in London, they easily related to their new life.##Philip's father and maternal grandfather died in quick succession, in March 1913 and January 1914, and the family moved to St Helier, although schooling continued at Trinity for a while.

In late 1914 Philip went to the Jersey Modern School, counting Arthur Mourant was a contemporary. There was no question of the family being able to afford Victoria College. but by the time Philip left school in 1917 he had learned shorthand and started typing. His first employers were Job and Son, merchants, of Commercial Buildings, and he soon found himself thrust into responsibility, building a foundation of commercial and local knowledge that was to stand him in good stead in later years.

British Petroleum

In 1921 he went to work for his uncle, Jack Mauger, who held the British Petroleum Company's agency in the island. His contacts with some of the UK personnel of British Petroleum resulted in the offer of a job in Bristol, and he moved there in 1924.

He quickly understood the need to obtain a professional qualification and passed the intermediate examinations as a certified accountant. He sat the qualifying examination for the Royal Air Force and was offered a commission, but decided to stay where he was, with the advantage of his accounting knowledge. In 1927 he was moved to Cardiff and completed his accountancy examinations. He was given the job of helping to run the BP accounts department in Manchester. He then moved to Asiatic Petroleum, part of the Shell group, as an accountant in West Africa.

In October 1930 he went to the Belgian Congo to assist Shell's existing manager in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). Within a few months he succeeded the departing manager. He quickly integrated with the expatriate community. He travelled by car to French Congo and Angola, and into Tanganyika and the Sudan, as well as up the River Congo to Stanleyville (Kisangani). He developed Shell's ability to meet the demands for maintenance and refuelling stops by airlines.

In 1932 his two-year contract came to an end and he was posted to Lagos, Nigeria, to open the new Shell office there, with responsibility for the whole of British West Africa, as well as Dahomey, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Togoland.

Marriage

While on holiday in Jersey in 1935 he married Barbara Joyce Giffard and they went back to Lagos for another two-year tour. He was moved to Portugal and then to London in 1938 to undertake 'special duties'. His newly created job was to help deal with the oil industry's economic problems in general and to make the industry better understood. With the outbreak of war came new responsibilities as colleagues left for the services. The Occupation of Jersey led to his and Barbara's involvement with refugees and the Jersey Society in London. He became secretary of the society until 1964 and dealt with the publication of their bulletins and special publications, building up a valuable source of reference.

He attended a meeting at Oxford in July 1943 to discuss matters relating to the eventual liberation of Jersey and played a large part in the publication of Nos Iles. His interest in the problems of government in Jersey led to his decision to stand as Deputy when he eventually retired to the island in 1966.

In 1947, on secondment from Shell, he was appointed editor of The Petroleum Press Service. That job involved extensive travel and meetings with leading figures in both the industry and government at home and abroad.

He semi-retired in the early 1960s and travelled frequently to Jersey. He was chairman of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust and edited the Annual Bulletin of La Societe Jersiaise in 1964. He had helped in 1957 with the publication of Guy de Gruchy's Medieval Land Tenures in Jersey and after retirement he helped with the publication of Frank Le Maistre's Dictionnaire Jersiais-Francais. By November 1966 he had sold his home in London and stood successfully against four other candidates as a St Clement Deputy.

He served on the Finance and Economics Committee for nine years under the presidency of Cyril Le Marquand. He gave up his role on the Agriculture Committee when appointed president of the Island Development Committee in 1969, serving for six years as well as on the Establishment Committee and as a States appointed director of the Jersey Electricity Company.

He was the island's first delegate to the Association Internationale des Parliamentaires de Langue Francaise and was on the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. He retired as a deputy in 1975 and continued as a shareholders' director of the JEC. He became a Commissioner of Appeal for Income Tax and was heavily involved in parish and local affairs.