Name: LE TOCQ, Patrick by Voice-Vouaïe
Duration: 2 min

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) BG03 says his name: Brian Guille and his house name, La Ruette des Courtillets in the island of Guernsey; at ten weeks old he was evacuated with his mother, his father stayed behind like a lot of other men, BG03 and his mother went to Weymouth, they had no idea; they went to north of (30 secs - 1 min) England for five years, he has little memory of this time, maybe he can recall some things from when he was three or four; when the island was liberated they returned to Guernsey, BG03’s father was there waiting for them, BG03 had never seen him; he went to St. Peter’s School; when they first came back his parents spoke Guernesiais (G), it was their language, (1 min – 1 min 30 secs)  they spoke English (E) too, but they spoke more in G, BG03 has no idea how he learnt G, his parents spoke in G and perhaps he wanted to know what they were saying; G just came to him, when he went to school he had no trouble with E either; he has no idea how he learnt E, there were some children at school who had difficulty with E, those born in Guernsey during WWII, (1 min 30 secs – 2 mins) BG03 recalls that those children from lower St. Saviour’s had difficulty with E; BG03 speaks some G with others, sometimes, one or two, there are not many G speakers, some people understand it, but they cannot speak it; BG03 has never had any trouble speaking G; he speaks with some members of his family; since then [WWII] chidren did not learn to speak G, BG03 believes that a lot of parents spoke to their children in E.

GUILLE, Brian

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) NLM01 says his name, Nicholas Le Messurier, he was raised in St. Peter’s with his three brothers, his father’s name was also Nicholas, his mother’s name was Jessica, née Langlois; he was raised at La Mare, his brother Peter (PLM01) still lives there now, his other two brothers, Paul and Jim, (30 secs - 1 min)live in England; they went to St. Peter’s School; NLM01 read English (E) in Northern Ireland, and has a degree; he worked as a journalist at the Guernsey Press for sixteen years; since then NLM01 was a teacher at Les Beaucamps and then for two years at Blanchelande; NLM01 is married to Sheena, (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) they had two children, Robert who works in France, and Elie who is in Australia; NLM01’s parents both spoke Guernesiais (G) to each other, but not to them [the boys], NLM01 believes that at that time there were a lot of families like this; NLM01 could understand things in G, but couldn’t speak it; (1 min 30 secs – 2 mins) aged 63 NLM01 began learning G with his brother Peter and his friend Alan (AM01), NLM01 is very pleased that he began learning it there are not many people who can speak it; it is important to use our language, G; NLM01 is retired, but now he is busy working for the Guernsey Literary Festival.

LE MESSURIER, Nick

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30) secs) KLC01 gives his personal details; when he was young he had a motorbike, one day he was behind the school buses and he couldn’t overtake; after the bend in the road at Perelle he had a chance to overtake, he went full throttle along the coas,; when he had almost arrived at Le Catioroc he looked in his mirror and there (30 secs - 1 min) was a policeman with his blue light, KLC01 thought I am not going to stop here as the bus is going to pass soon and my school mates on, they would see him and tease him, so he decided to pull into an old woman’s yard to hide; the policeman followed him in, and said that he had seen KLC01 riding his motorbike, and he had thought that KLC01 was doing very well, a well-behaved young lad who isn’t trying to overtake the bus, and that he was riding well; but (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) then when he passed the bend at Richmond, he went full throttle, he asked why KLC01 was going at more than 50 Mph, KLC01 replied saying that he didn’t know; the bus passed by and no one on board saw KLC01 with the policeman; KLC01 thought that he had got away without being seen; the policeman gave him a caution, and told him to not to go too fast when he is on his motorbike; KLC01 rode off in the direction of L’Érée; (1 min 30 secs – 2 mins) the policeman wondered why he had ridden off; at the same time the old woman came out of the house and told off the policeman for having cautioned someone on her property, the property was nothing to do with KLC01, the policeman had no right to do so; KLC01 knew this to be true because when he was in the car park at L’Érée, the policeman turned up and told KLC01 that he had been left with that flipping old woman, at that moment the bus full of KLC01’s school mates passed by.

LE CHEMINANT, Keith

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30) secs: GG01 tells us his name and address in Torteval, he says that he has not always lived in Torteval because he was evacuated to England before the German Occupation 1940 – 45; he did not speak Guernesiais (G) while in England but speaks it now; he picked up G again after his return to Guernsey by working amongst locals (30 secs - 1 min); GG01 was born in 1930, he is 89 years old. As an evacuee, at first he lived in Alderley Edge, subsequently he won a scholarship and went to Oldham to attend grammar school; in Oldham he lived in a big house, the home of a wealthy lady, (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) he and a fellow evacuee from Guernsey, both aged 10, (1 min 40 secs – 2 mins) rather cheekily asked for a Hornsby train set for Christmas, and to their surprise she gave them one.

GALLIENNE, George

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) SF01 says his name: Stephen Francis, he was born in Guernsey, his parents did not speak Guernesiais (G), but he heard it spoken everywhere; SF01 has played the piano since he was six years old, and the organ since he was twelve years old; he plays the piano every day and at chapel too, and at church for funerals; (30 secs - 1 min) SF01 is a Christian and believes his life to be preordained by God, he reads from Ecclesiastes 3:1-12 (1 min – 1 mins 57 secs).

FRANCIS, Stephen

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) GJ02 says his name: Geoff Jehan, and his age: 73 years old, he lives at Port Soif, Vale; GJ02 spoke Guernesiais (G) before he went to school, he lived with his parents and grandmother, they all spoke G, they spoke to him in it, they lived at Vazon, before he went to school he could speak it, but when he went to school everyone else spoke English (E), so he says that you lose it, though you still remember it; GJ02 went to the Câtel school, then on to Les Beaucamps; (30 secs - 1 min) DOB: 14/12/1945, he quips that he waited for the Germans to go; GJ02 was a carpenter, he worked for Nick Tostevin; at Vazon all of the neighbours were growers, they spoke G, GJ02 knew exactly what they were saying; he remembers once that his grandmother was having trouble with her water, the Water Board (authority)came round, (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) and she said that, “It’s fresh from my ‘pisse’ this morning.”, ‘pisse’ is ‘well’ in G; GJ02 explains how he got back into speaking G with his brother GJ01 when visiting their mother in the care home at Saumarez Park, they say (1 min 30 secs – 1 min 59 secs) general things, he provides examples of things that they say; GJ02 is teaching G phrases to someone he swims with at La Valette Pools, he provides examples of some rudimentary phrases.

JEHAN, Geoff

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) DJ01 says his name, David Jehan; he his from Windy Ridge, Le Frie Bâton, St. Saviour’s where he lived with his parents and his three sisters; DJ01 says that his father had the same name as him, he says it in Guernesiais (G)  DJ01 says that he was called by a nick name (a play on words as Jehan = hundred in G) about a hundred weight of potatoes with which he was teased; (30 secs -1 min), when DJ01 lived at his parents’ home they used to speak G most of the time, but as he is the youngest, he did not get enough practice so he lost it; DJ01 went to St. Saviour’s School, it was all in English (E), his mates were from the area, but they spoke E, they tried to teach G, which (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) worked up to a point; DJ01 left school when he was thirteen years old and he worked with his father in the greenhouses, they were the only workers there, but in the evening sometimes men from the area came to help trimming and picking tomatoes, they came after their day’s work, they spoke in E.

JEHAN, David

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) HT01 says her name, Hazel Tomlinson, but her birth name was Torode from Torteval; she has spoken Guernesiais(G)all of her life; she was born at the start of WWII in October 1940, she was about four and a half years old when WWII ended; she recalls the Liberation well, going to town with all of her family and friends, (30 secs - 1 min) they were in front of Woolworth’s shop by the slip; HT01 would like G to carry on, but more needs to be done, she doesn’t know what can be done, but we must try; she speaks G when she is on holiday with her husband, (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) people give them strange looks; when she was a little girl, when the farm workers made hay in the field behind the house, the field belonged to HT01’s great auntie (Robilliard) from Les Jehans, HT01 used to play/hide in the rows of cut hay, (1 min 30 secs – 2 mins) when the workers came back to pick up the hay to take it to the farm, the rows were messed up, there was still more work to be done; HT01 says she thinks that they were a damned nuissance for the farm workers, but they had fun, it is not like this now, children don't know about the fun that they had, it is a shame that children nowadays don’t have the fun that they had playing in this way.

TOMLINSON, Hazel

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) PLT01 says his name: Patrick Le Tocq, he had four brothers and three sisters, they lost one last year, he had cancer; when he started school at 5 years old they lived at Donkey Hill in St. Andrew’s, they went to school there, after two months they moved to (30 secs - 1 min) his uncle’s place, next door to the Chapel in Torteval, it was like ‘Buckingham Palace’, in St. Andrew’s they had two bedrooms and a room downstairs, in Torteval they had a bathroom, even an inside toilet, in St. Andrew’s the toilet was up the garden, it wasn’t fun when it rained in (1 min – 1 min 30 secs) the middle of the night and you needed to go; when PLT01 was a young lad, during the summer holidays he was in the way, under his mother’s feet, she told him to ask Mr Norman (a neighbour) if he had any work for him, it happened  that he was digging freesia corms, so PLT01 worked for him picking them up, at the end of the week on Friday (1 min 30 secs – 2 mins) Mr Norman told PLT01 to ask his mother how much he should pay him, PLT01 thought he would be clever and not ask his mother, but rather come up with a figure himself, Mr Norman asked how his mother had said to pay him, it turned out that Mr Norman would have paid PLT01 more, PLT01 learned his lesson.

LE TOCQ, Patrick

Recorded as part of the Voice-Vouaïe project, by Guernsey Museums with language consultant Yan Marquis. Photographer Aaron Yeandle took portraits of 105 people who grew up in an environment where Guernesiais was spoken. Yan recorded interviewed each participant.

(0 – 30 secs) BP02 says his name and that he has lived in the Câtel for 27 years; he can speak a lot of Guernesiais (G), but sometimes says things in French (F), this is different from G; BP02 says a rhyme in G and then in English (E), it is about a boy with a wooden gun which is loaded with big green peas, he shoots a brace of geese in Mr. Langlois’ field, (30 secs - 1 min) he meets Mr. Langlois who asks about the geese, BP02 says where he had shot them (1 min – 1 min 30 secs), this meant that they were Mr. Langlois’ geese; BP02 spoke G before starting school; he compares some G fishing vocabulary with its F equivalents.

LE TOCQ, Patrick

Voice-Vouaïe

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