Beyond the Call of Duty

A Medical History of Jersey During the German Occupation 1940 - 1945

In her book, 'Beyond the Call of Duty', former nurse and Health Promotion Officer, Val Garnier, describes the daily lives of medical staff and patients, in Jersey's hospitals and nursing homes, during the German Occupation. Doctors, pharmacists and nurses, deprived of their usual supplies of medicines, commodities, light and fuel, found innovative ways of coping. Medical Officer of Health Reports show how Islanders underwent a dramatic change in lifestyle and how the privayions of the Occupation caused some medical conditions, whilst easing, or eradicating, others. Diabetics were admitted to hospital and when insulin ran out, they died. One young boy discharged himself and spent the rest of the Occupation digging people's gardens, in an effort to keep his blood sugar levels down. His extraordinary story tells how a German soldier gave him insulin, thus enabling him to live to tell his tale. The book also includes many fascinating interviews with former doctor's, nurses, patients and others from the time recorded in 1995 by broadcaster Geraldine des Forges.