31 Facts About Sibyl Hathaway

Sibyl Hathaway married Dudley Beaumont in 1901, and they had seven children.

Sibyl Hathaway succeeded her father in 1927, and immediately set about reinforcing her feudal rights and promoting tourism on the island, which she affectionately called "the last bastion of feudalism".

When she remarried in 1929, her second husband, Robert Sibyl Hathaway, legally became her senior co-ruler, but she kept control of the government.

Dame Sibyl Hathaway's tenure saw the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the Second World War, during which she refused to evacuate and convinced the islanders to stay as well.

Sibyl Hathaway was described by a British government official as a "lady of unusual personality", and is often referred to as a benevolent dictator.

Dame Sibyl Hathaway died at the age of 90, and was succeeded by her grandson, Michael Beaumont.

Sibyl Hathaway Mary Collings was born in Guernsey in a house that once belonged to John Allaire, her privateering great-great-grandfather, whose business dealings brought the fief of Sark to his daughter, Marie Collings.

Sibyl Hathaway's parents were William Frederick Collings and his Montreal-born wife Sophie.

Sibyl Hathaway was lame due to unequal leg length, but that did not prevent him from insisting on teaching her to shoot, sail, and climb cliffs.

Sibyl Hathaway never allowed his daughters to complain of pain or sadness, and his successor was later grateful for "being able to live a life free of the inconvenience of self-pity".

Sibyl Hathaway's father made it clear that he was adamantly opposed to the relationship, but Sibyl continued to see Beaumont.

Sibyl Hathaway's father regretted his action almost immediately, and searched the island for her the next morning, but she had resolved to leave.

Sibyl Hathaway boarded a boat for the neighbouring island of Guernsey.

Sibyl Hathaway Beaumont had no contact with her father for the next one year, until the birth of her first child, Bridget.

Sibyl Hathaway's death left her a pregnant widow with precarious finances.

Sibyl Hathaway learned German and started working for the YMCA in Cologne.

Sibyl Hathaway worked for the British Army of the Rhine and raised prize cattle.

Sibyl Hathaway used the island's unique feudal system to draw tourists, and refused to allow anything to deter them by ruining its peacefulness.

Sibyl Hathaway thus banned motor vehicles and holiday camps, but the Chief Pleas refused to pass an ordinance that would forbid selling alcohol to anyone known to get drunk.

Sibyl Hathaway was much respected by the islanders as well as by the Germans, whose language she spoke perfectly, for the leadership she gave during this period, and the British Home Secretary Herbert Morrison observed that she remained "almost wholly mistress of the situation" throughout the occupation.

Sibyl Hathaway was on friendly terms with Eugen Furst zu Oettingen-Wallerstein, the German commander stationed in Guernsey, as indicated by their warm correspondence.

Sibyl Hathaway's husband was deported to Ilag VII in Laufen in Bavaria in February 1943, where he remained for the rest of the war.

Sibyl Hathaway did not sign any document delegating his seigneurial authority, which meant that legality of ordinances issued by Hathaway during this period was, at best, questionable.

Sibyl Hathaway refused to sign orders issued by Germans, arguing that they were simply not hers to sign.

Sibyl Hathaway organised a raid on German grain stocks and saved many families from starvation with her secret potato hoard.

Sibyl Hathaway made sure the garrison cleared up the island of land mines.

Sibyl Hathaway was so concerned about the legal status of the decisions she had issued during the war that she sailed to Guernsey to validate them as soon as the island was liberated.

Sibyl Hathaway felt there was nothing to be gained by being rude to them.

In 1969, Sibyl Hathaway became increasingly worried by the Royal Commission on the Constitution's intrusion into her affairs.

Sibyl Hathaway shocked the islanders by announcing her intention to resign the charter of the island back to the Crown "in somewhat the same way as the Hereditary le Mesurier Family did in Alderney" and to recommend that the government be taken over by Guernsey.

Sibyl Hathaway looked forward to meeting Celia Johnson, who was to play the title role, but died suddenly at the Seigneurie of a heart attack on 14 July 1974.