Alfred Thoume le Messurier was “great-gran” to Jean and Tiny. He had been the postmaster of Guernsey, like his father before him. His daughter Eda Le Messurier married an englishman, William Stringer, who had come to Guernsey to be the headmaster of the boys high school, and after a decade of marriage, they moved to English, as WIlliam got a job as a school inspector in the north of England.

Eda (who was an only child) insisted that her parents (Alfred and Elizabeth Tourtel, known as Lizzie) move with her back to England. History doesn’t relate exactly why she insisted, but her granddaughters believe it was because she decided that she couldn’t cope without her parents, rather than that they couldn’t cope without her.

So in the 1940s, Alfred was in his eighties (Lizzie died in 1930), and they both remember him as lovely and kind when they visited their grandparents, probably in Chester. Their cousin Mandy also said the same thing, he was universally loved in the family.  He spent time with his great grandchildren – “Beside them rather than at them”. He also loved going for walks with them.

His first language was Guernsey Patois but he spoke english as he was in the post office.

He used to embarass his granddaughter Margot because when his nose started bleeding he would just lie down on the pavement to stop the bleeding.