It’s difficult to imagine what life was like for islanders who stayed in Guernsey during the Occupation.

Private D. R. Board served as a member of the St John Ambulance Brigade for the five years of the Second World War. In a letter found in our records he tells his story of what it was like to serve the island during this time, describing the chaotic scenes of the evacuation and Guernsey’s first air-raid.

Listen to his letter read in full by Simon de la Rue, kindly produced by BBC Radio Guernsey.

“…I sincerely hope that Guernsey never experiences anything like this again, but if it should one thing is certain, we as St John Ambulance men will face it unflinchingly and with courage, ready to do our job again, always bearing in our minds the Brigade’s motto: ‘For Faith and the Good of Humanity”.