Geoffrey Rowland in his final year at Amherst. (0738568)

THERE is a lovely, worn, red encyclopaedia tucked away in the Rowlands’ Doyle Hill home overlooking the bay at L’Ancresse.

The story behind it gives the first indication of the Bailiff’s career potential.

It dates back exactly half a century and was presented to the 11-year-old from nearby St John’s Road by the president of the St Peter Port education committee, the future Conseiller Bernard Joy, at the annual Amherst School prizegiving.

Known as the Bridgewater Memorial Prize, it was awarded ‘for the boy most outstanding in character, academic and sporting qualities’.

The recipient was Geoffrey Rowland, a true all-rounder then, and at a young age, already with a reputation to live up to.

For the next 50 years, islanders are aware that he has not stopped displaying the qualities Bridgewater admired when he donated the prize to the then biggest junior school in Guernsey, with some 600 boys and girls.

But did our Bailiff inherit those qualities in his genes or develop them – and what did he know about his background?

‘The Rowland side of the family has been thoroughly investigated by my father and a cousin,’ he told researchers Terry Dowinton and Maria van der Tang.

‘Much time was spent in Devon, in both Exmouth and Littleham, and on the Internet by my cousin piecing together the paternal side of the family tree, the Rowlands and the Marleys.

‘I suspect you will not easily get much further, but hopefully you will explore the maternal side, investigating the Maunders and the Smiths,’ was the Bailiff’s wish.

‘I know that three of my grandparents, Marley, Maunder and Smith, were born in Guernsey, and Rowland in England, but I’d love to know the genetic mix of my great-great-grandparents and earlier ancestors.’

Terry and Maria, given a genealogical challenge, came up trumps, to Geoffrey’s immense delight.

Geoffrey is installed as Bailiff of Guernsey in 2005. (0211905)

One completed ancestral tree later and the Bailiff was informed that he has descendants from not only Guernsey and the Westcountry, but as far north as the Isle of Mull in Scotland, east as Surrey and south as Jersey.

Yes, there is a very small element of ‘crapaud’ in the most important and respected Guernseyman.

The connection with Jersey dates back to the early 19th century and a woman called Priscilla Crang.

Born in St Helier in 1819, she married Guernseyman John Oliver Maunder, one of Geoffrey’s maternal great-grandfathers.

The Scottish link comes via their son, the champion cyclist and cycle shop owner Arthur James Maunder, who married Christina Lockyear – daughter of Guernseyman Artimus Lockyear  and Christina McKinnon, his bride from the Isle of Mull, in Argyllshire.

Geoffrey’s links with the past take in a wide variety of traditional Sarnian surnames and with every new one discovered by Terry and Maria, the greater his interest, satisfaction and fascination.

If Marley and Maunder were not Guernsey enough, the additions of Mauger, Langlois, Rougier and Le Conte to the family tree fortifies his Sarnian pedigree and roots.