page_title: Sibyl Hathaway
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Sibyl Hathaway / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: Nrf: Procliamâtion du Gouvèrneux militaithe des Îles d'la Manche auprès la Libéthâtion 1945 English: Liberation of the Channel Islands, May 1945: proclamation of the military governor This work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain. This is because it is one of the following: It is a photograph taken prior to 1 June 1957; or It was published prior to 1970; or It is an artistic work other than a photograph or engraving (e.g. a painting) which was created prior to 1970. HMSO has declared that the expiry of Crown Copyrights applies worldwide (ref: HMSO Email Reply)More information. See also Copyright and Crown copyright artistic works. Deutsch&#160;| English&#160;| suomi&#160;| français&#160;| italiano&#160;| 日本語&#160;| 한국어&#160;| македонски&#160;| മലയാളം&#160;| Nederlands&#160;| polski&#160;| português&#160;| русский&#160;| sicilianu&#160;| slovenščina&#160;| Türkçe&#160;| українська&#160;| 中文&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: Dame Sibyl Mary Hathaway DBE was Dame of Sark from 1927 until her death in 1974. Her 47-year rule over Sark, in the Channel Islands, spanned the reigns of four Monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.
  The Dame was the daughter of the eccentric Seigneur of Sark, William Frederick Collings. Sibyl learned French, Sercquiais Norman and German prior to becoming feudal lady of Sark. She married Dudley Beaumont in 1901, and they had seven children. One of her children died in infancy, and her husband died from Spanish flu in 1918, leaving her a financially troubled widow. She succeeded her father in 1927, and immediately set about reinforcing her feudal rights and promoting tourism on the island, which she affectionately called "the last bastion of feudalism". When she remarried in 1929, her second husband, Robert Hathaway, legally became her senior co-ruler, but she kept control of the government.
  Dame Sibyl's tenure saw the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the Second World War, during which she refused to evacuate and convinced the islanders to stay as well.
context_section_description: Hathaway's tenure as seigneur was interrupted by the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the Second World War from 3 July 1940 until 8 May 1945. While some inhabitants of other Channel Islands were evacuated, Hathaway declared that she would not leave her island, and prevailed upon all native-born islanders to remain as well. Hathaway appears to have believed that Germans would either never come to the island or that their stay would be brief.
  Most of her tenants bitterly resented her for the decision to remain on Sark during the ensuing five years of occupation, but thanked her after the war when they saw how total evacuation destroyed the neighbouring island of Alderney. The Dame had her senior official meet German officers at the harbour and escort them to her residence, where her maid announced them as if they were guests.
  Hathaway was much respected by the islanders as well as by the Germans, whose language she spoke perfectly, for the leadership she gave during this period, and the British Home Secretary Herbert Morrison observed that she remained "almost wholly mistress of the situation" throughout the occupation. Hathaway was on friendly terms with Eugen Fürst zu Oettingen-Wallerstein, the German commander stationed in Guernsey, as indicated by their warm correspondence. She wrote of him as a "charming man" and noted "that they had many friends in common".
  Many other German officers in charge of the Channel Islands were also of noble extraction, and Hathaway exploited their "stiff German formality" by making it clear that she "expected to be treated ... with the rigid etiquette to which they were accustomed in their own country." She insisted that officers come to her rather than the other way around, and expected them to bow, kiss her hand, and bow again before she allowed them to take a seat. Using her influence with the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein, she was able to get the German army physician stationed in Sark to treat her sick tenants. When Germans ordered that all the Sarkese be instructed in German, the Dame offered a room in her residence as a classroom for the children of the island.
  Hathaway's eldest son Francis and his wife Mary were killed during the Liverpool Blitz; his son Michael became first in line to inherit the island. Her husband was deported to Ilag VII in Laufen in Bavaria in February 1943, where he remained for the rest of the war. He did not sign any document delegating his seigneurial authority, which meant that legality of ordinances issued by Hathaway during this period was, at best, questionable. She refused to sign orders issued by Germans, arguing that they were simply not hers to sign. She was insulted by an order that prohibited sexual relations between her tenants and German troops on the grounds of venereal disease outbreak, since the order implied that Sarkese women consorted with Germans.
  On the other hand, it appears that she did not voice objection to a series of antisemitic orders that had been previously issued, and which concerned her Czech Jewish friend Annie Wranowsky.
  Islanders suffered shortage of food in the last months of the occupation. Hathaway organised a raid on German grain stocks and saved many families from starvation with her secret potato hoard. Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945. Three British officers arrived and, explaining that no British troops were available, asked the Dame to take command of 275 men belonging to the defeated German garrison. She made sure the garrison cleared up the island of land mines. She was, however, so concerned about the legal status of the decisions she had issued during the war that she sailed to Guernsey to validate them as soon as the island was liberated. Her experience of the German occupation inspired William Douglas-Home's play The Dame of Sark. Hathaway's manner of receiving Germans has been described as both impressive and overly cordial. She felt there was nothing to be gained by being rude to them.
caption: Proclamation of liberation of the Channel Islands
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