Guernsey Liberation Day events to be broadcast online

Channel
Guernsey
Monday 13 April 2020 at 10:10am

Events to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation in Guernsey will be broadcast online to allow islanders to join the celebrations from home.

Several major public events have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but plans are still being adapted to mark the milestone.

Events including a church service led by the Dean of Guernsey, a message from the Bailiff Sir Richard Collas and a reading of the Queen's message by the Lieutenant-Governor will be broadcast both online and through local media.

The broadcasts will include footage from the Liberation in 1945, vintage photos and opportunities to hear from WW2 veterans who were due to visit the island for the 2020 celebrations.

The Committee for Education, Sport & Culture says that plans may need to be revised further if public health advice changes - including encouraging islanders to mark the event at home and share their celebrations online.

While the way we mark Liberation Day obviously needs to change this year, we can still find ways to commemorate the occasion together as a community. The Committee is planning events which will encourage us all to continue to mark the Liberation and show some of the community spirit which helped pull our island and her people through the long years of Occupation. Events will not be restricted to May 9th but will be organised in the lead up to Liberation Day as well. These plans will be developed further over the next few weeks. They will have to be adapted further if public health advice changes and therefore we will wait until closer to the day to publish final details of events. But we wanted the community to know that there will still be opportunities to commemorate the Liberation. The Liberation must continue to be commemorated because of the immense sacrifices made by so many and because of the great impact WW2 had on our community.

The Committee will publish a full schedule of events to be broadcast in due course.

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