Nicholas Ogier suffered a terrible death in the Occupation (0594444)

THE two-way mirror that assists drivers as they exit Grandes Rocques Road marks the point where 67 years ago Nicholas Ogier met a cruel and mysterious death.

Unsurprisingly, the story still pains Joyce Domaille, his daughter, today.

Her father, who fought in the First World War and lost an eye and suffered wounds to his chest and side in action, had stayed in the family home at Linda Cottage when the island became occupied by the Germans.

With most of his family evacuated, the 50-year-old grower and part-time fisherman was living alone and taking his meals at his mother’s house in the old cottage which now makes the corner at Grandes Rocques opposite the butchers’ shop.

But on a dark Sunday evening early in January 1941, he met his death in disturbing circumstances, dying from exposure and heart failure trapped in a ditch beneath the then granite Grandes Rocques Hotel perimeter wall.

Trapped, he screamed for help long into the evening but under curfew restrictions nobody helped.

At the inquest, neighbours admitted to hearing something but were too scared to go out.

Mr D. Le Page heard noises ‘like shouting, from nine in the evening until midnight’.

Nicholas was left to die and was found by his son ‘wedged in a gully’ nearly two full days later.

His surviving daughter remains unsure of the exact truth to her father’s death, but has built up her own picture of the night he perished.

‘I believe he went to my gran’s for his supper on the corner about 6pm and then went across to the Grandes Rocques Hotel,’ she said.

‘He decided to cross the field and the silly chap probably decided to jump over the wall.

‘From what I can make out, he fell, became jammed and died of exposure.’

It was probably his wish for a Sunday evening tipple that led to the tragic accident.

At the inquest, Inspector W. Sculpher said he had been told that Nicholas Ogier had been seen rattling at the hotel window at about 7.30pm.

But, oddly, the inspector reported that the man who supposedly saw him at the window was not known.

‘Knowing my dad he probably thought he could go over [to the hotel] for a drink, but I don’t know.’

Summing up the inquest, the coroner said no evidence had been given to prove how the Grandes Rocques man died.

‘He may have crossed the field and fallen accidentally, he may have dropped in.’

An open verdict was recorded.

Joyce says it took her a long while to believe her father had died and on the family’s return after the war she refused to accept the fact until walking around the whole area in search of him.

‘All of this [the old days] has good and bad memories, but the saddest for me was that I never saw my dad again.’