Queen’s message read out in Sark

Seigneur Christopher Beaumont read the Royal message, which was addressed to the Channel Islands, outside the Seigneurie flanked by standard bearers from the British Legion in military uniform.

The ceremony, organised by the British Legion and the Seigneur, was recorded earlier last week and released on Sunday to comply with Covid-19 social distancing.

After the reading had ended, the national anthem rang out over the Seigneurie gardens before the Seigneur delivered his own message for the people of Sark.

‘I would very much wish for people to look forward to next year,’ he said.

‘We’re not cancelling, we are really just postponing and it will be important that we remember as we would’ve remembered today what went on all those years before.

‘Seventy-six is going to be just as important a celebration as seventy-five and I hope people will take no pain in not being able to celebrate in the way we had planned this year, but look forward to next year when we’ll be over the troubles we’re in at the moment and we’ll be free and able to celebrate in a way that we would all wish to celebrate.’

Seventy-five years ago on Sunday, Sark was liberated when three British officers and 20 men landed on the island to take the formal declarations of surrender from the German commandant at Rosebud Cottage.

The formalities taken care of, the Dame of Sark Sibyl Hathaway ordered bottles of champagne to be dug up from their hiding place in the Seigneurie garden to celebrate the end of the island’s occupation.

A framed Union Jack gifted to the island by the liberating troops, which is usually proudly displayed in the assembly room where Sark’s government Chief Pleas are held, was also displayed during the ceremony.

HMS Tyne, a River-class patrol ship used to safeguard fishing stocks, was an inspiring site while anchored near the island on Friday flying flags for VE Day.