John Abraham Le Ruez

By Gilly Carr 

John Abraham Le Ruez was born on 4 May 1881. Like many men of his generation, he served in the Royal Jersey Militia with the rank of Private. He left the militia in 1916.

At the start of the Occupation he was 59 years old, married to Hilda Le Ruez née Hotton, and working as a farmer.

Le Ruez comes to our attention because, on 28 August 1941, he was sentenced by the Court of the Field Command 515 to two months and one day’s imprisonment for ‘larceny and infraction of curfew’. Because he was tried by the German court, we can assume that his larceny was against the German forces. He was tried on the same day as Alfred Le Monnier, who was also charged with larceny.

On 4 September 1941, John Le Ruez was deported, along with Alfred Le Monnier, to Caen Prison. He was unlucky to have been deported with such a short sentence; normally people were deported only for a sentence of three months or more. It is possible that he was deported because he was convicted of two offences, or because he did not show enough contrition in front of the military court, or because the Germans wished to fill the deportation vessel.

Le Ruez arrived at Caen prison on 5 September 1941 and completed the entirety of his prison sentence here. On 2 November 1941 he was released and returned to Jersey.

Sources

John Le Ruez’s Occupation registration card, Jersey Archives ref. St.B/4/688.

John Le Ruez’s Occupation registration form, Jersey Archives ref. St.B/4/689 and 690.

John Le Ruez’s record, political prisoner register, Jersey Archives ref. D/AG/B7/7.

John Le Ruez’s court records, copyright Jersey Archives ref. D/Z/H6/2/29.

John Le Ruez’s records from Caen Prison, Calvados Archives, Caen, ref. 1664 w 34.