Granny – Ada Mary du Feu (nee Trachy) – meek, mild, looked like everyone’s idea of a granny. Good household manager, mother of seven children. Would not cross her cantankerous husband I thought, but actually the letters reveal she was made of sterner stuff. When i used to go for my lunch, if the phone rang, (in the hall of course) she would not allow me to answer it. Only Papa could answer it.

Papa – Philip John du Feu – Patriarch, retired, goes to town to his club every morning. he was a Centenier in St Helier Honorary Police. Didn’t like us children, don’t think he liked his own much when they were young. It was said he had a mistress but I’ve never been able to confirm it.

Cyril du Feu – eldest son, emigrated to Canada as a young man, as did his uncles. It was quite a tradition in Jersey, to go to the cod fishing. Many houses in Jersey are called ‘cod houses’, very fine granite houses built on the back of the cod trade.

Snowdon du Feu – went with his brother to Canada, subsequently married and had 2 sons, Douglas and David. Settled in Montreal.

Kathleen Harvey (Kay) (nee du Feu) – oldest daughter, very bossy! worked in De Gruchy in the corset department before marrying …

Arthur Harvey – born in Bradford and manager of De Gruchy. Pompous ass but resilient and defiant when the Germans were in occupation. both Kathleen and Arthur deported to a German camp in 1942

Kay and Arthur’s wedding 1939

Doreen du Feu, marries Winter Nichols (Nick) during the time of the letters. Vivacious and strong-willed, she’s the one who defies her father as they are growing up and in fact is most like him. Lives at home until her marriage working in de Gruchy, Milk Marketing Board and various other places

Roselle du Feu – lives at home and never marries. She works in De Gruchy all her working life, becoming a buyer on haberdashery and fancy goods. She’s a baker and looks after her parents as they get older. She is a dutiful daughter and never seems to consider her own position.

Lennard du Feu – my dad. he leaves the Island to work in Oxford before the war and then joins the RAF, falls ill, meets my mum…

Margaret du Feu (nee Booth) she is from Stockport, arrives in Jersey, thinks she’s died and gone to heaven, never wants to leave Jersey but sadly is dragged back to the UK in 1956.

Margaret du Feu – the ‘baby’ of the family, Margaret was never quite the same as others. she had funny ways, but was fiercely protected by Roselle. In 1959 she married one of her father’s friends, 30 years her senior. As Doreen once said ‘it wasn’t a marriage in the sense that we know it’. I never pursued that remark. She married …

Charlie Marrett – a printer in the museum, widower, friend of Philip’s, happy to marry again

That’s the family, apart from Granny’s sister and bother Blanche and John Trachy