Ivy Forster

Ivy Forster
Deputy for Saint Helier
In office
1948–1954
Personal details
Born1907
DiedJune 1997(1997-06-00) (aged 89–90)

Ivy Forster (1907 – June 1997) was a politician from Jersey. During World War II she and her family sheltered Russian forced labourers brought to the islands by the Nazis, activity that resulted in her sister being killed in a concentration camp. After the war, Forster was elected to the States Assembly in 1948, becoming its first female member.

Biography

Forster was born in 1907, one of nine children of the seaman Vincent Le Druillenec.

World War II

During World War II and the German occupation of the Channel Islands, both Forster and her sister Louisa Gould sheltered Russian forced labourers. Forster and her husband Arthur took in Grigori Koslov in December 1942, with Koslov living in their attic. In 1944 a letter written by a local resident informing the Germans about Louisa sheltering another Russian, Fyodor Buriy [ru], was intercepted. Although Buriy was moved to Ivy's house, the Geheime Feldpolizei found evidence of his stay at Louisa's home. Forster and her brother Harold Le Druillenec were also searched, and illegal radios were found.[page needed]

Louisa was arrested on 25 May and Ivy a week later, by which time Buriy had moved on. Their brother Harold was later arrested as he had been seen visiting Louisa. All three were convicted; Louisa and Harold were initially jailed in France, before being sent to concentration camps; Louisa died in Ravensbrück concentration camp, while Harold was a survivor of Bergen-Belsen and testified at the Nuremberg Trials.

Ivy was spared deportation due to being given an exemption on health grounds after a doctor falsified medical records to claim that she was suffering from tuberculosis. She instead served her prison sentence of five months and fifteen days in Jersey. Koslov and Buriy both survived the war.

The events were later made into a film, Another Mother's Son, released in 2017. Forster was portrayed by Amanda Abbington.

Politics

In 1948 Forster contested elections to the States Assembly in the Saint Helier constituency and became the first woman elected to the island's legislature.

Forster was re-elected in 1951 but lost her seat in 1954.

Death and legacy

Forster died in June 1997, aged 90. After her death she was named as one of the 29 British Heroes of the Holocaust.

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Lyn (2013). Heroes of the Holocaust: Ordinary Britons Who Risked Their Lives to Make a Difference. Ebury. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-09-194068-3.
  2. 1 2 Sanders, Paul (2004). The Ultimate Sacrifice: The Jersey Islanders who Died in German Prisons and Concentration Camps During the Occupation 1940-1945. Jersey Heritage Trust. pp. 65–71. ISBN 978-0-9538858-4-8.
  3. ↑ Bunting, Madeleine (24 July 2014). The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940-1945. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4735-2130-8.
  4. 1 2 Louisa Mary Gould née Le Druillenec Frank Falla Archive.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Prominent women". States Assembly. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Harold Osmond Le Druillenec Frank Falla Archive.
  7. ↑ "Louisa Gould's Registration Card". Jersey Heritage. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  8. ↑ Sanders, Paul (2005). The British Channel Islands Under German Occupation, 1940-1945. Jersey Heritage Trust. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-9538858-3-1.
  9. ↑ Tabb, Peter (2005). A Peculiar Occupation: New Perspectives on Hitler's Channel Islands. Ian Allan. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7110-3113-5.
  10. ↑ "Louisa Gould". Jersey War Tours. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  11. ↑ "Another Mother's Son". collections-search.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  12. ↑ Balleine, George Reginald; Syvret, Marguerite; Stevens, Joan (1981). Balleine's History of Jersey. Phillimore. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-85033-413-5.
  13. ↑ "Jersey's first female politician celebrated". Jersey Evening Post. 8 December 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  14. ↑ "First woman elected to States Assembly in Jersey 75 years ago". BBC News. 8 December 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  15. ↑ "Jersey's female political pioneers celebrated". Bailiwick Express News Jersey. 18 April 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "Courage of four Island heroes". Jersey Evening Post. 9 March 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2026.