Women Occupation Heroes

Find out more about:

Major Marie Ozanne O.F.

Member of the Salvation Army and resistor to oppression

Born: Guernsey 1906

Died: Guernsey 1943

Miss Ozanne spoke out publicly during the Second World War and was imprisoned by the German Forces.

The wearing of uniforms was banned but Marie continued to wear her Salvation Army uniform until it was forcibly taken away. She protested to the German authorities about their ill treatment and persecution of the Jewish people and also the treatment of slave workers in the island.

In her diaries, Marie mentions giving food to French and Dutch foreign workers. She also recorded that she was protesting and going into Town to read scriptures and sending letters about the plight of foreign workers and the Island's hungry people. "Guernsey is beautiful, why so much war, darkness and hatred?" she wrote.

Miss Ozanne was imprisoned by the German Forces after preaching and suffered from poor health from then on. She died aged 37. Marie was awarded the Salvation Army's highest honour, the Order of the Founder, in 1947.

Things to see or do: you can read about her diaries here. These remarkable diaries can sometimes be viewed by prior appointment at the Island Archives. You can see the blue plaque on Miss Ozanne's former house, Aquarius, Dehus Lane in the Vale (in the same lane as the Dehus Dolmen). The plaque was unveiled in 2013.

Winnifred Harvey

Island Commissioner for the Girl Guides.

1888-1976

Winnifred was born in Guernsey to the prominent Harvey family in 1888. For most of her life she lived in an impressive house in Prince Albert's Road, St. Peter Port-named Newlands.

During the German Occupation of Guernsey in the Second World War (1940 -1945), Winnifred refused to allow the German forces to commandeer her home. She recorded the resulting conflict in detail in her wartime diaries that were published in 1995 - they were aptly entitled Battle of Newlands.

Winnifred was also the Island Commissioner for the Girl Guides. Whilst the German Forces tried to ban meetings, Winnifred remained resolute and organised small gatherings of the Girl Guides across the island.

In addition to her other roles, Winnifred Harvey was a board member of the Town Hospital and the Vice President of the local branch of the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airman's Families Association.

Leonie Trouteaud MBE

Founder of the Guernsey Branch of the British Red Cross

Born 1904

Born in 1904 Leonie Trouteaud was educated at the Girls' Grammar School before attending Ladies College. After the arrival of the German Occupying forces in 1940, Trouteaud joined the Red Cross Society. With anxieties surrounding what was to come for islanders under occupation, on the invitation of Mr. Stamford-Raffles, Trouteaud formed the Red Cross Message Bureau. It was Trouteaud's job to vet all outgoing letters written by islanders before they were delivered to the Germans for checking. Just two years into the operation, the Bureau had already vetted hundreds of thousands of letters. The job was important and Trouteaud was regularly called upon to clarify the content of letters suspected of concealing valuable information about life under German rule.

As resources diminished Trouteaud also had a role to play in the arrival of the Red Cross ship the SS Vegain December 1944. As a member of the committee organising the Red Cross relief, Trouteaud had responsibility for organising how to distribute and deliver the supplies.

After the War Trouteaud established a Guernsey branch of the British Red Cross. She later became its president.