Sibyl Hathaway

Sibyl Mary Hathaway, born Collings ( born January 13, 1884 on Guernsey, † July 14, 1974 on Sark ), had as Dame de Sark (English: Dame of Sark ) 1927-1974 the hereditary function of the feudal lords of about 600 people inhabited channel Islands Sark held. This feature was in the family since 1852 when her great-grandmother she had acquired.

As the daughter of the studied Anglican theologian William Frederick Collings, the then feudal lords of the island, and the Native Canadian Sophia Moffat, she was born in January 1884 on Guernsey, there was no doctor on Sark. Their education they received by French governesses and then, at 14, for a short time at a Sacred Heart boarding school in Lille. After an escape from the sometimes very hot-tempered father and marrying Dudley Beaumont against the will of the Father in London in 1901, she lived mostly on the British " mainland". In 1912, she returned to Sark back and began farming, but withdrew for financial reasons to Guernsey, after her husband died in 1918 during the influenza epidemic.

In 1927, she went to her father's heritage and married in 1929 the Native Americans Robert Woodward Hathaway ( 1887-1954 ), who had received as a former British air force officer British citizenship. According to the traditional ownership of Sark, after went over the property of a married woman in the possession of her husband, Robert Hathaway was from then on until his death feudal lord ( seigneur ) of the island.

From 1940 Sark was, like the other Channel Islands also occupied by the Wehrmacht. In contrast to the inhabitants of many islands that could be evacuated beforehand to England ( in Alderney as there was during the occupation still two whole households) were the native inhabitants of Sark on their island. Sibyl Hathaway treated the occupiers polite but authoritarian ( " Your word was law. Even for us [ ... ] " said a German soldier to do so). Sibyl Hathaway was next to the Guernseyer Jurat ( judge) Lainé the only politically influential person who refused to sign German commands. After a largely unsuccessful British commando raid on Sark two weeks later, 1943, 63 people were deported from Sark in February, allegedly including all former officers, but also women and children. This included also Sibyl Hathaway's husband, who had been in the First World War British air force officer. Nine people had already been deported in 1942 and interned in southern German barracks.

In the second half of the 19th century are no longer competitive agriculture of the island had lost in importance; tourism, however, was more extensive. This development Sibyl Hathaway trying to promote: They made ​​several lecture tours in the United States and has written for the National Geographic Magazine published an article. In their reign is felled, a construction of the new port ( 1938-1949 ). The current design of the symmetrical garden of the residence of the lords, the Seigneurie, goes mostly back to Hathaway; the partially exotic plants come from their many tours. Hathaway was a staunch representative of the traditional feudal form of government Sark. Under their " influence and charisma ," said a resident of the island, had entered a " socio-political wind ."

Sibyl Hathaway had six children from his first marriage. Successor as Seigneur was her grandson John Michael Beaumont, a trained aeronautical engineer.

Literature and sources

• Sibyl Hathaway: Dame of Sark. An Autobiography. Heinemann, London et al 1961.
• Alfred H. Ewen, Allan R. de Carteret: The Fief of Sark. With Foreword by La Dame de Serk. Guernsey Press, Guernsey 1969, pp. 103-110, p 166

Also

• Person (Guernsey)
• Briton
• Born in 1884
• Died in 1974
• Woman