Henry Addicott

By Gilly Carr

Henry Addicott was born in Blagdon, Somerset, and at the time of the German occupation was 64 years old, working as a tea room proprietor, and living in Trinity Gardens in St Helier with his wife.

Very little is known about Addicott’s experience during the occupation. However, Jersey court records show that on 22 December 1941 he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for receiving stolen goods.

During the occupation, the German forces requisitioned much food from the local population, and many of the Islanders convicted for theft of food were trying to take the food back again. It is possible that somebody known to Addicott – perhaps one of the men convicted of larceny on the same day as him – was able to pass some of this food to him for use in his tea rooms.

The political prisoner log book from Jersey prison shows that he was deported on 12 January 1942.  He next appears in the prison register of Caen Prison, where he arrived on 13 January 1942, and remained until his release on 21 June 1942. He was then at liberty to return to Jersey. No other archival record has yet been found which records the rest of his experiences during the Occupation.