​​St Saviour’s Church and memorial plaque​

​​Despite radios having been banned by the German occupying forces in June 1942, Canon often called out the BBC news while cycling through St Helier and passed it on to patients in the General Hospital, where he was chaplain, to keep up their spirits. When, on one occasion, a nurse warned him to be more careful, he allegedly replied along the lines of ‘Don’t worry, God is on my side!’

​Canon’s source of information was the news sheets compiled by cemetery worker Joseph Tierney and Arthur Wakeham. They received the BBC news each morning from John Nicolle and his father, a St Saviour’s farmer, who retained an illegal radio set on loan from a Mrs Bathe.

​Joseph was the first to be arrested for defiance in March 1943, followed by 17 others. The following month, Canon was sentenced to 18 months, Joseph to two years, John to three years, and Arthur Dimmery, whose crime constituted of having dug up the hidden radio, was given three months and two weeks. All four were deported to France to serve their sentences but were later moved to German prisons. None of them survived. Their names, and those of the other Islanders who paid the ultimate price for their defiance are carved into the plinth around the Lighthouse Memorial on the New North Quay of St Helier Harbour.

​More information about all those mentioned can be found at https://www.frankfallaarchive.org/