Granny Alice's historic link
DESPITE the fact that she died in 2008, at the grand old age of 93, I still hear stories about the legendary fund-raising activities of Alice de Carteret - someone fittingly described at the time of her death as 'a quite remarkable daughter of Sark'.
DESPITE the fact that she died in 2008, at the grand old age of 93, I still hear stories about the legendary fund-raising activities of Alice de Carteret - someone fittingly described at the time of her death as 'a quite remarkable daughter of Sark'.
Granny Alice, as she is still referred to, was the doyenne of Sark's charity workers and fund-raisers and she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1990s for her services to charity and the island community.
Quite remarkably, her fund-raising activities continued after her death because, at her own wish, a raffle and charity auction was held at the wake immediately after her funeral in March 2008 and it raised almost £1,000.
What brings her to mind right now is that while walking towards The Mill and directly opposite Le Manoir, I glanced at the meadow to my left and saw a newly-erected plaque just near the path leading to the Dixcart and Stocks hotels.
It is adjacent to a tree planted by Granny Alice in 2001 to commemorate the de Carteret family reunion held in Sark that year. The plaque bears the family coat of arms and a photograph of those members of that extended family from all over the world who attended the event.
Of course, the family name is of huge significance in Sark because it was Helier de Carteret who, as Seigneur of St Ouen in Jersey in 1565, obtained the charter from Queen Elizabeth I to colonise the island.
In five years' time - 2015 - it will be the 450th anniversary of that colonisation and, given the time it takes here for things to get from an embryonic idea to reality, it might be useful for the powers that be to start planning in the not-too-distant future. Some decent publicity about Sark celebrating such a link with the past would do the island a power of good.
Talking of decent publicity, Paul Armorgie of Stocks Hotel told me earlier this week that it and the island had received some excellent coverage in the Belfast Telegraph as a result of a journalist from that newspaper holidaying in the island and doing a feature on the hotel and - perhaps more particularly - some of the workmen from Northern Ireland working on its massive redevelopment programme.
'The newspaper devoted three pages to the feature, which is great news for us and for Sark,' said Paul.
As an aside, he also disclosed that the newly refurbished Stocks should be ready to reopen for business early next year.
Chief Pleas met earlier this week - after I had penned this column - to vote on amending the Reform Law to split the roles of the Seneschal and provide for a president of the legislature. Additionally, members also sought to address the question of filling vacancies among their number.
At present there are two vacancies, following the resignation of David Pollard just nine months into his four-year term and the death of Stephen Henry a little under a year into his four-year term.
As I understand it, the law currently provides for neither vacancy to be filled until December 2012 - a quite lamentable state of affairs and one which effectively deprives the electorate of more than seven per cent of its representation for more than three years, while also adding to the workload of the remaining 26 members.
Vacancies should be filled as soon as is practicable after they arise unless it's so close to an election that it makes little difference. To do otherwise hardly furthers the cause of democracy.
* The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.
