The three academic experts who are compiling a list of local resistance fighters after finding details from Frank Falla’s archive. Pictured are Dr Louise Willmot, left, Dr Gilly Carr and Dr Paul Saunders. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0999053)

THREE academic experts have uncovered a file of documents holding information about Guernsey’s resistance heroes.

Dr Gilly Carr, lecturer in archaeology at Cambridge University, said the newly discovered archive means she and her team – who are Europe’s only three academic researchers with expertise in the occupation of the Channel Islands – will be able to put together a list of people who were known to have actively opposed the Occupation.

The briefcase of diaries, letters and papers belonged to Frank Falla, author of The Silent War, who was part of a group of islanders who defied Nazi orders by producing an underground newspaper called the Guernsey Underground News Service.

The team aim to carry out work to write the definitive list of Guernsey resistance heroes for a war memorial, and also to set up a tourist ‘resistance trail’ around the island. They are appealing to the Guernsey public for contributions towards the £10,000 it will cost for them to carry out their research.

Anybody who would like to contribute should contact Dr Gilly Carr, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, CB2 1RL. Or people can email her at gcc20@hermes.cam.ac.uk.

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