Life
Born Sibyl Mary Collings, daughter of William Frederick Collings, she inherited the title when her father died on 14 June 1927.
In 1901 she married her first husband, Dudley John Beaumont. The couple had seven children: Bridget Amice Beaumont (1902–1948); Francis William Lionel Beaumont (1903–1941) (father of John Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark); Cyril John Astley Beaumont (1905–1973); Basil Ian Beaumont (1908–1909); Douce Alianore Daphne Beaumont (1910–1967); Richard Vyvyan Dudley Beaumont (b. 1915); Jehanne Rosemary Ernestine Beaumont (b. 1919). Hathaway wrote extensively about her relationship with Beaumont in her 1961 autobiography. Beaumont served in the British army as an officer during World War I and died in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic. In 1929 she married Robert Hathaway, an American, and he served as Seigneur jointly with his wife; he died in 1954.
Her tenure as Seigneur was interrupted by the German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II from 3 July 1940 until 8 May 1945. Hathaway did not evacuate during the German occupation, and prevailed upon all 471 Sark inhabitants to remain on the island as well. She was much respected by the islanders as well as the Germans, whose language she spoke perfectly, for the leadership she gave during this period, and the British Home Secretary observed that she remained 'almost wholly mistress of the situation' throughout the occupation. For the week of 10-17 May 1945, following liberation, she was left in command of the German garrison on her island.
She commissioned the design of the flag of Sark in 1938. It was also her decision that no cars be allowed on Sark, a rule that continues to the present.
Read more about this topic: Sibyl Mary Hathaway
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Mothers who are strong people, who can pursue a life of their own when it is time to let their children go, empower their children of either gender to feel free and whole. But weak women, women who feel and act like victims of something or other, may make their children feel responsible for taking care of them, and they can carry their children down with them.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be,
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May
Although it fall and die that night;
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“What if there are not only two nostrils, two eyes, two lobes, and so forth, but two psyches as well, and they are separately equipped? They go through life like Siamese twins inside one person.... They can be just a little different, like identical twins, or they can be vastly different, like good and evil.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)