This Is Guernsey

By Juliet Pouteaux

Barbara Stenning, left, who emigrated to New Zealand with her family 56 years ago, is pictured with daughter with Anne Cameron and cousin Ruth Sarahs, right. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0775390)

WHEN Barbara Stenning left Guernsey for New Zealand in 1953, she was determined to return one day.

More than half a century later she achieved her wish.

‘I have to pinch myself to realise I am actually here,’ said the 75-year-old. ‘It has been my dream to come back.’

Mrs Stenning was born in Castel in 1934 to local builder John Le Prevost and his wife, Sybil.

She remembers her father building their home near Petit Bot and attending St Martin’s School. At the outbreak of war she was five years old. She was evacuated to London and then Lancashire with her younger sister, Pamela.

She did not return to Guernsey until she was 11.

‘I remember celebrating Liberation Day in Guernsey,’ she said. ‘I have got a Liberation medal, and I have treasured it.’

She attended Vauvert School for two years before starting work as a nanny for young boys Jonathan and David Castle near Cobo.

When she was 19, the entire Le Prevost family decided to emigrate.

‘We decided to emigrate because my dad was a builder and after the war life was very hard and it wasn’t the same. My mum saw an advert in the paper for settlers and it went from there.’

It cost £200 for the family to sail to New Zealand on the TSS Captain Cook. However, the government there were so keen for settlers, they paid for all the travel costs.

‘We sold everything, even the carpet, curtains, cat and dog,’ she said.

‘Arriving in New Zealand was a culture shock, but I don’t regret it.’

The family arrived in Balclutha on South Island in 1953, and in 1957 she married Kiwi David Stenning and had four children.

Despite the distance, Mrs Stenning always wanted to come back to Guernsey and she said she always saw it as her home. She even named one of her daughters Sarnia.

‘I have not been back in 56 years,’ she said.

‘I cried on the flight over. It was where I was born and where I longed to come back to.’

She said the island has changed a lot. Cobo was bare of trees when she was young and when she left the island was still recovering from the Occupation. However, both her former schools at St Martin’s and Vauvert have not changed at all.

‘It doesn’t seem like 56 years. It feels like yesterday.’

Mrs Stenning is staying with some of her local family for 10 weeks.

She is keen to hear from anyone who has memories of her family or can remember two of the family homes her father built. These are Hi Ho near Petit Bot and Ovingdean in Castel, near the King Edward VII. She would also like to hear from David and Jonathan Castle, who she cared for between 1947 and 1953.

n To get in contact call 252031.

Article posted on 21st May, 2009 - 2.29pm