Ivy Forster (1907 – June 1997) was a politician from

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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 in 1948, becoming its first female member.

Biography

Forster was born in 1907, one of nine children of the seaman Vincent Le Druillenec.Paul Sanders (2004) ''The ultimate sacrifice: The Jersey islanders s who died in German prisons and concentration camps during the Occupation 1940–1945'', pp65–71 During

and the

German occupation of the Channel Islands The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are two island countries and British ...

, both she and her sister Louisa 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 informing the Germans about Louisa sheltering another Russian, Feodor Buryi, was intercepted. Although Buryi was moved to Ivy's house, the

Geheime Feldpolizei The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'', short: ''GFP'' (), , was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plain-clothed security work in the field - such as counter-espionage, ...

found evidence of his stay at Louisa's home. Louisa was arrested on 25 May and Ivy a week later, by which time Buryi 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 Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

,Louisa Mary Gould née Le Druillenec
Frank Falla Archive while Harold was a survivor of

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

. Ivy was spared deportation due to being given an exemption on health grounds after a doctor pretended that she was suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and instead served her prison sentence in Jersey. Koslov and Buryi both survived the war. The events were later made into a film, ''

Another Mother's Son ''Another Mother's Son'' is a 2017 British war drama film directed by Christopher Menaul, written by Jenny Lecoat, and starring Jenny Seagrove, Julian Kostov, Ronan Keating, John Hannah, and Amanda Abbington. The film is based on a true story ...

'', released in 2017. In 1948 she contested

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

to the States in the

Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; french: Saint-Hélier) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St Helier has a population of 35,822 – over one-third of the total population of Jersey – ...

constituency and became the first woman elected to the island's legislature.Prominent women
States of Jersey She was re-elected in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

, but lost her seat in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

. She died in June 1997 at the age of 90. After her death she was named as one of the 29 British Heroes of the Holocaust.Courage of four Island heroes
Jersey Evening Post

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Ivy 1907 births Jersey women in politics 1997 deaths Deputies of Jersey