Tribute paid to ‘inspiring’ 103-year-old

Mr de Garis died on Tuesday, one month short of his 104th birthday, and Sonia Singh paid tribute to a popular resident who was a keen participant in many of the home’s activities.

‘He would do everything,’ she said, adding that he even took part in an Easter bonnet competition earlier in the year, creating a seasonal hat for the occasion.

Ms Singh said he would often talk about life during the Occupation, and recently he shared one of these memories in a short video created to show the history behind the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society film, which opened last Friday.

This included contributions from a number of islanders and Mr de Garis commented on how he and his family managed to avoid providing supplies to the occupying forces.

‘We never gave the Germans anything, we kept it to ourselves – kept everything hidden.’

Mr de Garis was a grower by trade and was born and lived almost his whole life in St Saviour’s.

He moved to Torteval at the end of last year, when he took up residence at Chateau des Tielles.

During the Occupation he and his family carried on growing as well as keeping pigs, despite the Germans’ laws against it.

The couple’s two sons arrived at the start and end of the Occupation, with Renaut – better known as Vic – arriving in 1941 and Ivo in 1945.

Ms Singh said that Mr de Garis particularly enjoying cooking, having cooked for himself since his wife Adele, nee Langlois, died in 1982, and he took this enthusiasm with him to the home.

‘He gave me a recipe for Guernsey gache,’ she said, adding that he had intended to help her bake some as part of the home’s Liberation Day celebrations.

During his long life Mr de Garis served as a St Saviour’s douzenier for 30 years, as well as churchwarden and constable.