Peter Crill - Early Years

Early Years

Crill attended Victoria College, Jersey between 1932 and 1943. He started work, during the German occupation of Jersey, for the law firm Crill and Benest, where his father was a partner.

As a young man, he was one of the few people who successfully escaped from German-occupied Jersey during the Second World War. With two friends he retrieved the family’s 12 ft (3.7 m) dinghy from store, hiding it while it was made seaworthy. They set out at 8.15pm at the end of the first week in November 1944, choosing a place where they knew the nearest German guard was at least 100 yards (91 m) away (there were some 13,000 German troops garrisoning 26,000 islanders). The danger was that if they failed to get far enough out to sea, they would simply be carried round the island by the tide and spotted at daylight. Rowing out through a heavy swell till they could safely start the engine, they soon had to stop, to go to the aid of a second boat behind them. When the engine would not restart, they put up a small sail, but lost the compass in a squall an hour later. With the sea too rough to sail, they allowed the boat to drift, feeling thoroughly seasick after years ashore. Soon after dawn, the tide began to carry them away from land. Finally, they restarted the motor and landed safely at Agon-Coutainville near Coutances.

From France, Crill crossed to England. He later wrote of the escape 'With hindsight we achieved very little except to confirm through the memorandum of the then Bailiff, Mr A.M. Coutanche, the state of the Island as regards food and heating. Coutanche had prepared a memorandum about the problems facing the Island and had handed it to the German authorities. It contained courageously a hint that if they failed to fulfil their obligations under the Geneva Convention that might be something to be levelled against them after the war'.

He read modern history at Exeter College, Oxford and in 1949 was called to the bar in Jersey.