FOR the past 60 years, there has been a Sunday service in St Tugual’s Chapel. With the departure of the Wood family, the honour of holding these now goes to island secretary Mel Brown.

Ever since the christening of Jo Grimshaw (then Wood) in 1949, her father, Major Peter Wood, held the weekly service in the little church during the summer months.

For the past 25 years or so, the service has been taken by Adrian Heyworth with Mrs Grimshaw as organist.

Mel (pictured) has always had a lot of involvement with the church, as he is responsible for the lovely floral displays on the altar and windowsills, and for decorating the chapel for weddings, christenings and Christmas services.

He is familiar to most visitors, as he is the first person most people meet on arriving and visiting the administration office. For many guests, Mel has been the face of Herm for almost 25 years.

The Easter Sunday service had a large turnout of hotel guests and residents, with everyone being very supportive of his new role.

The annual Easter egg hunt was a huge success and winning children collected almost twice as many eggs as in previous years.

Every year on Easter Sunday, White House guests brace themselves for the 11am influx of chocolate-crazed children stampeding through the lounges.

Reception staff excel at finding the most inventive of hiding places, and every nook and cranny must be checked. One particular guest only narrowly avoided being frisked by one child, who was convinced that she was concealing chocolate.

Winners collected around 40 eggs and received vouchers for the island gift shops. All the other children went away happy enough with their little buckets of chocolate.