WW1 and life in Jersey – 7 DORA
Life in Jersey
during the Great War:
DORA
A letter from the Government Offices regarding new restrictions on lighting introduced under the Defence of the Realm Act
This is one of a series of articles on various aspects of life in Jersey during the 1914-1918 war which is based on newspaper reports and archived documents. We acknowledge the valuable resource of a weekly series of articles by historian Ian Ronayne which was published on the Jersey Heritage website from 2014 to 2018 to mark the centenary of the conflict
One of the first pieces of legislation enacted on the outbreak of the war, immediately extended to Jersey and the other Channel Islands, was the Defence of the Realm Act, known as DORA, but with no sense of affection by those who fell foul of its provisions.
The act was to impact on many people, from newspaper editors to pub gossips; postcard publishers to photographers.
Newspapers were severely restricted in what they could report of local military matters. The provision in the law that 'no person shall without lawful authority publish or communicate any information for disloyal purposes’ would be tested before the Royal Court before the legislation was very old.
But it was not just newspaper reports which could fall foul of the act. Within weeks of its enactment Edward Single, a baker's delivery man, was charged with spreading false reports about the war and remanded to be tried by a military court.
Highlands College student Marcel Fresson's experiments with wireless signals in his town garden as part of his physics studies led to a raid by the Aliens Officer and his appearance in court with his mother Bertha charged with the possession of equipment capable of sending or receiving wireless signals.
Despite accepting that his breach of the law was entirely innocent, the Royal Court fined him £2. Contrast that with the £1 fine imposed on the editor of the Evening Post, Walter Guiton, a few weeks later for publishing a report mentioning the departure from the island of a detachment of the South Staffordshire Regiment.
This was one of many examples of the Royal Court not taking such matters as seriously as did the Lieut-Governor, on behalf of the Home Office, which had clearly been monitoring war-related reports in the local newspaper for some time.
Postcards
Stringent controls on postcard photographs were imposed in November 1915. Any which included harbours, defence installations, prominent buildings, monuments and landmarks which might help the enemy attack a target were prohibited.
Not only could they not be sold, but any postcard containing a prohibited image posted outside the island was to be intercepted by the official censor, without the sender being advised that this had happened.
And anybody visiting the island could not take their own photographs because all photography was banned. DORA allowed the military authorities to prohibit the taking of photographs in any area considered militarily sensitive, in case they fell into enemy hands.
The whole of Jersey was considered a prohibited area and shipping companies were required to display prominent notices warning visitors of the rule.
Vraic collecting
When a Mr Jean went collecting vraic in St Ouen's Bay at night in February 1916 a Militia patrol spotted lights on his carts, and he was arrested and charged with an offence under DORA. Once again the Attorney-General moved for a £2 fine but on this occasion the Bailiff noted that there was considerable confusion over what lights were permitted or prohibited and imposed a fine of one shilling. Bertha and Marcel Fresson must have been even more bemused at why a schoolboy's experiment with a makeshift wireless aerial had landed them with what was then such a substantial penalty. But when lights in the Central Market were found shining brightly at 9.25 one night in September 1916 on the instructions of the Markets Inspector, a visit by the Attorney-General persuaded him to cover the lights in future and not to make a test case of it.
Illegal letter
All letters leaving the island had to be passed by the Censor, which meant that when Henri Prigent missed the last post and handed a letter for onward posting in England to a friend who was the chief engineer of the mailboat ss Ibex this was considered a serious breach of DORA.
On this occasion, despite accepting that neither of them intended to break the law, the Bailiff reverted to his earlier more stringent penalty and fined both of them £2.
Early closing
There was consternation among shopkeepers when, in the run-up to Christmas in November 1916 it was announced that they had to close their shops by 8 pm on weekdays and 9 o'clock on Saturdays. They appealed to the Lieut-Governor, but such were the rules in the UK, and the same rules would apply in Jersey.
Spreading rumours
Spreading rumours could have serious consequences. When James Walkey was accused of spreading a 'wicked rumour' that the Ibex had been sunk in the Channel by mentioning it in a pub conversation, he found himself in Court. His defence was that he had heard the rumour from women he met in the street and believed it to be true.
An investigation into how the rumour started was ordered by the Court and Walkey was released on £15 bail – a massive sum for a working man at the time – and told that he could ultimately be fined that amount or sent to prison for six months with hard labour.
Controls on islanders during the Great War may have been insignificant compared with what they faced 25 years later during the German Occupation, but they were nevertheless quite a shock to the system for those who had previously had no experience of wartime restrictions.
