Channel Islands at War — Col. Rybot’s poetic protest
Col. Norman Victor Lacey Rybot 6 (1876 - 1961) was a resident of Jersey during the German occupation of the Channel Islands. He was a stamp designer and a poet whom the Germans would have been seen as a “double threat” to their occupation of Jersey — if they had been paying attention.
In another of my web pages — “The Channel Islands at War — Postage stamps as instruments of Resistance” — I discuss how Col. Rybot designed two new Jersey postage stamps at the request of the Jersey bailiff. Jersey, like Guernsey, was running out of the British stamps that had been in use before the occupation. Col. Rybot’s stamps were similar to the stamps that Guernsey would soon issue: They feature a coat of arms rather than a portrait of King George. British stamps have always featured an image of the reigning monarch, but the German authorities could not imagine having the king’s portrait on a “German” stamp. What the authorities missed, however, were tiny but hardly microscopic insults to Hitler printed in the Jersey stamps’ four corners.
Stamps, however, weren’t the only weapon Rybot used in his personal war against the Nazis: one of his weapons was a poem, “An Occupation Alphabet”. But first, a note about Rybot the man, based on information provided in Jerripedia, a website sharing knowledge about Jersey's people, places and heritage.
Norman Victor Lacey Rybot was born in Jersey on Jan. 7, 1876, the son of Colonel G. O. Rybot, of the Bengal Artillery. As a young man he developed an absorbing interest in Jersey’s history, which he never lost, and joined the Société Jersiaise. He was commissioned in August 1896 and joined the British Indian Army on Nov. 19, 1897.
Rybot wins a DSO and is captured by the Turks
Rybot first served in several colonial campaigns on the Indian subcontinent. In the Middle East during the First World War, he was twice mentioned in dispatches and awarded a DSO (Distinguished Service Order) for his actions in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). In 1916, Rybot was among thousands of British officers and troops who were captured by the Turks in Mesopotamia. Of 227 officers and some 12,000 other ranks (enlisted soldiers) who walked or were carried in the subsequent infamous “death march” to Turkey, only 30 per cent survived captivity.
After his repatriation, Rybot left the army in December 1920 and retired to Jersey where he became secretary of the Société Jersiaise, which promotes the study of history, archaeology, heraldry and just about every aspect of the island you can imagine. Over the next 20 years he wrote a number of books and pamphlets about Jersey and was elected as a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. During the German Occupation of the Channel Islands from July 1940, he was a “prisoner” once more, and not a happy one!
Protesting food shortages, British timidity, and “Jerrybags”
The poem as printed, signed and dated by Rybot. Source unknown. Click the picture to see it full size.
Not satisfied with attacking Jersey’s German occupying force only in philatelic terms, Col. Rybot wrote “An Occupation Alphabet”. The poem, written in the present tense, provides a perceptive picture of daily life in occupied Jersey with its shortages of food and basic commodities, loss of personal freedoms, inflation, and the loss of regular mail service to and from the islands.
The poem makes it clear that its author had as little admiration for some of his fellow islanders as he had for the Germans. Col. Rybot indicts war profiteers and hoarders alike, displays open contempt for the British government, which gave up the Channel Islands to the Nazis without a fight, and suggests that “Jerrybags” — Jerseyites who fraternized with Germans and collaborated with them — might be tarred and feathered after the war.
The poem also illuminates the plight of the hundreds of Channel Islands residents who were arrested, imprisoned, and deported as opponents of the Third Reich during the Occupation. Many were classified as political prisoners along with slave labourers and Jews, who faced persecution and prosecution under Nazi rule. Three Jewish women, classified as “enemy aliens” under British law, were refused the opportunity to be evacuated to Great Britain before the German Occupation of the islands. The German occupiers of Jersey classified them as enemy aliens and they were subsequently deported and murdered at Auschwitz.
An Occupation Alphabet
A is for Avarice, one of our vices.
We corner the goods and put up the prices.B is the Bungler who fancied it funny
To feed us on olives, dried carrots and tunny.C is for Conchies, contemptible wights
Who prefer to make hay while the other man fights.D’s the Deported. Their terrible fate
Has fostered our fury and hardened our hate.E is for Eatables — things nice to eat,
Like the cabbage, the turnip, the spud and the beet.F stands for Feathers which, mingled with tar,
Will decorate Jerrybags after the war.G are the Gossips. Avoid them with care!
They repeat and exaggerate all that they hear.H is for Hunger which makes you feel faint.
Some farmers know nought of this common complaint.I’s for Informers, a pestilent brood.
Their doom is impending, though hanging’s too good.J is for Jersey, enchained by the foe,
And abandoned by Britain in nineteen four o,K is the Knockout. The prophets are sure
It will come with a crash in the year forty-four.L are those Letters, from which you can tell
That year before last all the senders were well.M are the Markets, wherein you may spy
The price-lists of things you’re unable to buy.N are the Nasties, incredible devils,
But were they such poops as our Ramsays and Nevilles?O is my Overdraft. Sad to disclose
The blacker the market, the greater it grows.P’s Profiteers. Though the Cops know them all,
They leave them at large as the Prison’s too small.Q are the Queues. Some are endless, I fear.
If you queue for a fish you will queue for a year.R is the Reichsmark all crumpled and creased,
I have heard it described as the Mark of the Beast.S are the Stalwarts. Refusing to mope,
They hold to the adage “While life lasts, there’s hope.”T is for Tummies, — no longer in vogue,
You may bet, if you see one, the owner’s a rogue.U’s Uniforms. How we long for the day
When Khaki replaces the filthy Field Grey.V stands for Vitamins, medicos’ pets.
They abound in commodities nobody gets.W’s We. We’re a nation of barmies
Who owned half the world but would not keep armies.X are Xchanges oft offered for “What,”
A candle, a pram, and a shirt or a yacht.Y is our Yearning for bacon and ham,
Tea, sausages, soap, fish, sugar and jam.Z is for Zero. Soon, over the Mike
We’ll be told that is all that is left of the Rike.
It’s not known how or even if “An Occupation Alphabet” was published or distributed during the Occupation, but given that it was written in the present tense it seems certain it dates from well before the liberation of the Channel Islands on May 9, 1945, the day after VE Day (Victory in Europe Day). Perhaps Col. Rybot wrote it as a personal rant against everyone who made life in Jersey miserable. If the poem “went public” during the Occupation, it seems unlikely that Col. Rybot would have claimed authorship. The Germans had no appreciation of poetry.
Suggested reading:
• The Channel Islands at War — Postage stamps as instruments of resistance: The German occupation of the Channel Islands resulted in the creation of numerous postal artifacts of the prewar and wartime periods. The successful efforts of stamp designers to ridicule Hitler and Mussolini and to surreptitiously display their allegiance with Great Britain are highlighted.
• The Channel Islands at war — the Red Cross Message Scheme: Despite the loss of regular international mail services, Channel Islanders were able to communicate with friends living abroad courtesy of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
• The Channel Islands at war — Deportation & imprisonment: British residents living in the Channel Islands, along with some Jews and islanders charged with crimes against the Third Reich, were sent to German internment and concentration camps. Some died there.