GIVEN the content of the Jersey Leader newspaper it really should not come as a surprise that the two men responsible for its production were overtly political figures.

Little was known about the 1930s newspaper which landed on the Temps Passé desk a month or so ago until the son of one of the proprietors called, having seen the article in the Jersey Weekly Post.

Mike Renouf, who now lives in Devon, said that his father Ralph had set up the Jersey Leader in partnership with Ned Le Quesne.

Both men had particularly strong political convictions which came to the fore when normality began to return to the Island following the end of the Occupation.

Mike said that his father had considered going into local politics in Jersey but had, in the early 1930s, decided to turn his hand to publishing instead. Ralph had also worked in America for a number of years before and when he returned to Jersey he did so with a testimonial from the editor of an American paper.

When he found that he was interested in local affairs and he and Ned Le Quesne set up the Jersey Leader, publishing their first edition in 1935.

Mike said that he did not know for sure why the paper stopped only three years later in 1938 but a number of factors may have combined, not least of which was Ralph’s loss of his first wife, Florence.

He would later meet Mike’s mother Winifred and Mike was himself born in England towards the end of the war.
While in England, Ralph had far from forgotten his native island and was, said Mike, for many years a member of the Channel Islands Refugee Committee. The family returned to the Island at the end of the war and Ralph once again took an active interest in Island affairs.

Ralph was clearly a proponent of social justice and in the 1950s was a supporter of the introduction of the family allowance at a time when many people did not think it was the right thing to do.

Quite apart from Mike’s memories of his father, the tributes paid to him on his death in 1954 suggested that he had developed a name for himself when it came to social affairs.

The Jersey Evening Post’s own Meridian was one of those to make a comment about Ralph’s role in Island life. In the Under the Clock column – which in those days was run on the front page – Meridian wrote that Ralph was a man who held strong views and was never afraid of expressing them. According to the column, he had a deep interest in local industrial life, in particular in regard to employee, employer relations.

‘He had established a reputation as a fair and just man. He worked hard in the interests of the Federation of Jersey Employers and at the time of his death was a much respected past president,’ wrote Meridian.

The second proprietor, Ned Le Quesne (pictured), was even more political figure. He was elected as a Deputy for St Helier No 2 in 1925 and then became a Senator in 1948.

According to Francis Corbet’s A Biographical Dictionary of Jersey, Mr Le Quesne’s socialist views made him a lone figure in the States, even though he joined at a time when change was in the air.

Even before to his political career, he had shown a great interest in public works and was instrumental in providing a fund for providing wireless sets for the blind and was also an active member of the St Helier Poor Law Commission. Once a member of the States he – and the other representatives of St Helier – supported the Bill for Old Age Pensions.

During the Occupation, he was one of eight States Members who, with the Crown Officers, made up the Superior Council that assumed responsibility for all operations of the States. His special area of responsibility was as president of the Department of Labour Committee.

To minimise the number of people who might have to be conscripted to work for the Germans, many schemes for widening and improving the roads were devised.

According to Mr Corbet, Mr Le Quesne’s department managed any number of improvements, buildings and repairs, but its greatest success was that throughout the Occupation no one was compelled to work for the Germans.

Shortly after D-Day he was imprisoned by the Germans after his wireless set was discovered. The Gestapo sentenced him to seven months but was released after three weeks and then petitioned for the release of other prisoners.

‘Likeable and with high sense of humour, Le Quesne championed the cause of the under-dog and devoted himself to the welfare of Jersey folk. His firm socialist views were, however, frowned upon by many Islanders, not least because of the expensive projects that sprang from them. Mr Le Quesne died in 1957.

All in all, given the other contributions to the life of the community, it seems that the Jersey Leader was just the tiniest part of a lifetime of work for the benefit of others. With many thanks to Mike Renouf for his memories and Frank and David Le Quesne, who knew in which direction to point for details of Ned# Le Quesne.