Daughter uncovers story of Lib Day bugler father

Bernadette Meech’s dad Edward Hill performed along the Quay with the rest of his bandmates from the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry Band on 12 May 1945.

His daughter said that save for a school trip to Guernsey she pestered her parents to go on in 1967/8, leading to the revelation about her dad being in the island, she may never have found out.

‘He was here all during the time the island was celebrating Liberation Day – for seven weeks,’ she said.

‘It wasn’t something I knew about at all until I went on this school trip and I love the island now and have been coming back for many years, including for my honeymoon in 1972.

‘Me and my husband have been doing our research about him – it’s like finding out another side of him that I didn’t know about.

‘We’re definitely coming back next year for the anniversary but I won’t be playing any instrument like my dad, I think the musical gene skipped a generation, I can’t even play a penny whistle.’

Mr Hill, her father, played the cornet along the Quay with the band, as well as in St Stephen’s Church, Candie Gardens bandstand and he even played the bugle outside Government House.

Mrs Meech’s husband, Graham Meech, said they got their research information from a variety of sources including museums in Guernsey and Cornwall.

‘He’d only been married five weeks when he came over,’ he said.

‘We’ve always been really interested in finding out more, it’s like being able to walk in her dad’s footsteps, which is lovely.

‘He would have been 100 this year, if he was still with us, but there are possibly some that would still be alive and it would be good if we could meet them.

‘To us, Guernsey is our spiritual home, it’s great to be here, and to come back next year for the 75th anniversary after finding all this out would round things off for us.’