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University of Huddersfield Repository Travers, Daniel ‘The Churchillian Paradigm and the “Other British Isles”: An Examination of Second World War Remembrance in Man, Orkney, and Jersey’ Original Citation Travers, Daniel (2012) ‘The Churchillian Paradigm and the “Other British Isles”: An Examination of Second World War Remembrance in Man, Orkney, and Jersey’. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/17519/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ ‘The Churchillian Paradigm and the “Other British Isles”: An Examination of Second World War Remembrance in Man, Orkney, and Jersey’ Daniel Travers A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2012 2 Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6 1. Myth, Memory, Heritage ...................................................................................... 37 Collective Remembrance and the Churchillian paradigm ......................................................... 37 Manifestations of the Myth—‘sites of memory’ ....................................................................... 56 Experiences of the war on the islands ...................................................................................... 70 2. The Isle of Man ..................................................................................................... 82 Manx culture ............................................................................................................................. 83 Commemorations of the Second World War on the Isle of Man ............................................. 90 Material Representations of the War .................................................................................... 102 3. Orkney ................................................................................................................ 118 The Norwegian Scots .............................................................................................................. 120 Commemorating World War II ............................................................................................... 124 War relics and tangible sites of memory ................................................................................ 133 The legacy of Italian Prisoners of War .................................................................................... 142 4. Jersey.................................................................................................................. 153 A ‘peculiarity of the Crown’ .................................................................................................... 155 Jersey’s heritage direction ...................................................................................................... 164 Liberation Day .......................................................................................................................... 181 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 198 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 206 Total Word Count: 82,423 3 List of Images Figure – 1. Traditional model for evaluating terminology of Britain and ‘British Isles’. 2. Location of the islands in this dissertation. 3. Internment display at the Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man. 4. Children behind barbed wire, a painting by Hugo Dachinger in the Manx National Art Gallery, Douglas, Isle of Man. 5. The ‘Naval Encounters’ exhibit at the House of Mannannan, Peel, Isle of Man. 6. Arctic Convoys memorial, Lyness, Orkney. 7. Lyness Naval base, Lyness, Orkney. 8. The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, Orkney. 9. Part of the Occupation Tapestry, St. Helier, Jersey. 10. A German reaches out to shake hands at the Jersey War Tunnels, Jersey. 11. ‘Monument to Liberation’, Liberation Square, St. Helier, Jersey. 12. The ‘Freedom Tree’, St. Helier, Jersey. 4 Abstract ************************************************************** This dissertation studies Second World War ‘sites of memory’ in the islands of Jersey, Orkney and the Isle of Man, to determine if each island celebrates the war’s events as Britain does, or if they have charted their own mnemonic course. It builds on the work of Angus Calder, Malcolm Smith, and Mark Connelly, who have explored how popular conception of the Second World War in Britain has been structured around a certain set of commemorative motifs, most of which centre on Winston Churchill and the events of 1940. The British war narrative is now commonly referred to as the ‘Churchillian paradigm’ or ‘finest-hour myth’, and continues to be the driving force in commemoration and memorialization on the British mainland. The three islands in this study are culturally and historically distinct from Britain, and each has strong notions of its own ‘island identity’. Each also possesses a tangential and divisive domestic experience of war, one which is often minimized in the iconography of the Churchillian paradigm. Jersey was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1945, Orkney was home to several thousand Italian POWs who built important infrastructure in the island, and the Isle of Man was home to 14,000 German, Finnish, Japanese, and Italian internees in what one critic has called ‘a bespattered page’ in the nation’s history. By examining ‘sites of memory’— museums, heritage sites, commemorations, celebrations, philately, and use of public space—this dissertation shows that each island simultaneously accepts and rejects elements of the finest-hour myth in their collective memory. Each island displays its unique (though often quite negative) heritage in order to differentiate itself from Britain, while at the same time allowing them, at certain events, to participate in celebration of Britain’s ‘greatest victory’. In this way, islands’ use ‘Britishness’ pragmatically, by basking in traditionally ‘British’ commemorative tropes, while at the same time deepening their own cultural and historical sovereignty. 5 Copyright Statement **************************************************************** i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 6 ********************************************************** Introduction For the last sixty-five years, the United Kingdom has commemorated and celebrated the Second World War as ‘Britain’s finest hour’. Since the events themselves occurred, the war has been seen as a time when the British public pulled together to overcome great challenges, and defeat a seemingly insuperable foe. As a result, the anniversaries of Second World War events have traditionally been well celebrated: Dunkirk, D-Day, VE Day and VJ Day are now marked with commemorative services, re- enactments, dedications, and celebrations. At each significant anniversary, anthems are sung, Union flags are dusted off and draped, and the television flashes images of Britain’s people at war—armed forces and civilians—defiantly smiling through. Despite this imagery, however, it is now well understood that much of this commemoration and celebration is based on a series of myths that were ‘necessarily’ constructed during the war to keep morale high, and cemented in the post-war period. They have now become part of the fabric of Britain’s national identity. Second World War mythology has a special place within the hearts and minds of the British people, it influences museums and historical sites, informs living