Louisa Gould

Louisa Mary Gould (née Le Druillenec, 7 October 1891 – 13 February 1945)^[1] was a Jersey shopkeeper and a member of the resistance in the Channel Islands during World War II. From 1942 until her arrest in 1944, Gould sheltered an escaped Soviet forced labourer known as Fyodor Polycarpovich Buriy [ru] on the island of Jersey. Following a trial, she was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where she was killed in 1945.

Louisa Gould

A plaque commemorating Louisa Gould's resistance to Nazi occupying forces in Jersey during World War II

Gould was posthumously named a British Hero of the Holocaust in 2010.

Life

Gould was born Louisa Eva Le Druillenec in St Ouen, Jersey, on 7 October 1891.^[2][3][4] She was one of nine children of the seaman Vincent Le Druillenec.^[5] For most of her life she ran a grocery store at La Fontaine, Millais in St Ouen.^[6][7][8]

Gould had two sons, Ralph and Edward, both of whom enlisted in the British armed forces during World War II.^[9][10] Edward, an officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, was killed in action on HMS Bonaventure in March 1941.^[7][11]

Resistance

During World War II and the German occupation of the Channel Islands, the Nazis used captured Soviet servicemen as forced labour.^[12]

Both Louisa Gould and her sister Ivy Forster sheltered escaped Soviet forced labourers. Beginning in late 1942, Gould hid an escaped forced labourer, Fyodor Polycarpovich Buriy [ru], a pilot captured after his aircraft had been shot down.^[13] Aware of the severe penalties for harbouring enemies of the Germans, Gould said simply, "I have to do something for another mother's son."^[10] Gould hid Buriy inside her St Ouen home for 18 months.^[14]

Arrest, trial and death

In 1944 a letter informing the Germans about Gould sheltering a Russian was intercepted. Buriy, whom she called 'Bill',^[13][15] was moved to the house of her sister Ivy Forster. In June 1944, the German Geheime Feldpolizei searched her house and found evidence of his stay at Gould's home. They found a scrap of paper that had been used as a Christmas gift tag, addressed to Buriy, and a Russian-English dictionary that he had used for practising his English.^[9][16][17] Louisa was arrested on 25 May and Ivy a week later. Buriy managed to avoid capture until the liberation of Jersey.^[14] Their brother Harold Le Druillenec was later arrested as he had been seen visiting Louisa.^[7] All three were convicted. Gould was sentenced to two years in prison for harbouring Buriy, and for the possession of a radio which she had kept despite regulations requiring her to hand it in.^[7] Louisa Gould and her brother Harold were initially jailed in France then sent to Nazi concentration camps. Ivy Forster was spared deportation on health grounds after a doctor pretended that she was suffering from tuberculosis; she instead served her prison sentence of five months and fifteen days in Jersey.^[18][19]

Gould was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Louisa Gould was murdered in the gas chamber at Ravensbrück on 13 February 1945,^[1] two months before the camp's liberation.^[20]

Harold Le Druillenec was one of only two British survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.^[21]

A plaque in St Ouen, Jersey, commemorates Louisa Gould's death.

Recognition

In 1995^[22] a memorial plaque was unveiled in St Ouen, Jersey; Buriy, the former forced labourer from what had been the USSR, as well as Gould's son, Ralph, attended its unveiling. It was at this event that the two met for the first time.^[23][9]

On 9 March 2010 the award of British Hero of the Holocaust was made to 25 individuals posthumously, including four Jerseymen, by the United Kingdom government in recognition of UK citizens who assisted in rescuing victims of the Holocaust. The Jersey recipients were Gould, Ivy Forster, Harold Le Druillenec and Albert Bedane.^[24][25][26] It was, according to historian Freddie Cohen, the first time that the UK Government recognised the heroism of Jersey islanders during the German occupation.^[27]

Film

Gould's story is depicted in the 2017 film Another Mother's Son, based on a script by Jenny Lecoat, Gould's great-niece. Gould was portrayed by Jenny Seagrove.^[21][20][28]

References

1. In Another Mother's Son, between the end of the story and the start of the cast list, there are a few frames with photos and details of the main characters and what happened to them after the point at which the story in the film ends. The details for Louisa Gould give her precise date of death: 13 February 1945. (Viewed on DVD, where there was time to note this.)
2. "The true story of Louisa Gould". Jersey Tourist Information Centre. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
3. Paul Sanders (1998). The ultimate sacrifice: the Jersey Twenty and their "offenses against the occupying authorities", 1940–1945. Jersey Museums Service.
4. Société jersiaise (1999). Annual bulletin.
5. Paul Sanders (2004) The ultimate sacrifice: The Jersey islanders who died in German prisons and concentration camps during the Occupation 1940–1945, pp65–71
6. Barry Turner (25 April 2011). Outpost of Occupation: The Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands 1940–45. Aurum Press. pp. 165–. ISBN 978-1-84513-724-3.
7. Lyn Smith (5 January 2012). Heroes of the Holocaust: Ordinary Britons who risked their lives to make a difference. Ebury Publishing. pp. 103–. ISBN 978-1-4481-1812-0.
8. "Archives and collections online". Jerseyheritage.org. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
9. Sturgis, India (19 March 2017). "Mourning her own son, the mother who hid a Russian PoW from Nazi occupiers, and made the ultimate sacrifice". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
10. Glynis Cooper (2008). Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Jersey. Casemate Publishers. pp. 161–. ISBN 978-1-84563-068-3.
11. "Casualty Details: Edward Richard Gould". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
12. Carpenter, Julie (5 November 2012). "John Nettles: 'Telling the truth about Channel Islands cost me my friends'". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
13. "People of the Occupation – Jersey War Tunnels". Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
14. Gilly Carr; Paul Sanders; Louise Willmot (19 June 2014). Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the Channel Islands: German Occupation, 1940–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 195–. ISBN 978-1-4725-0813-3.
15. Paul Sanders (2005). The British Channel Islands Under German Occupation, 1940–1945. Paul Sanders. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-0-9538858-3-1.
16. Madeline Bunting (24 July 2014). The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940–1945. Random House. pp. 209–. ISBN 978-1-4735-2130-8.
17. Peter Tabb (2005). A Peculiar Occupation: New Perspectives on Hitler's Channel Islands. Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3113-5.
18. Louisa Mary Gould née Le Druillenec Frank Falla Archive
19. "Louisa Gould". Jersey War Tours. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
20. "Major film to tell the story of Jersey heroine's bravery". Jersey Evening Post. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
21. Bruxelles, Simon de. "Stars bring story of Jersey heroine gassed by Nazis to big screen". The Times. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
22. "Archives and collections online". Catalogue.jerseyheritage.org. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
23. David W. Moore (8 November 2005). The Other British Isles: A History of Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, Isle of Man, Anglesey, Scilly, Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. McFarland. pp. 239–. ISBN 978-0-7864-8924-4.
24. Blake, Heidi (10 March 2010). "The remarkable stories of Britain's Heroes of the Holocaust". Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
25. "Gordon Brown honours British Holocaust heroes". Thejc.com. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
26. "Courage of four Island heroes". Jersey Evening Post. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
27. Senator is a driving force behind move for international recognition, Jersey Evening Post, 9 March 2010
28. "Date set for Occupation-based film premiere". Bailiwickexpress.com. Retrieved 17 March 2017.