On this day in 1900

When the States met to discuss whether the Bailiff should receive a fixed salary, the debate was chaired, somewhat awkwardly by Sir Thomas Godfrey Carey, who was the Bailiff himself. He had the good grace to bow out, claiming that he was too old to have any great interest in the matter. He was, in fact, only 68.

Jersey had recently set the Bailiff’s salary at £1,200 for a very similar job. Although the Guernsey Bailiff’s actual pay wasn’t discussed in detail, the members agreed that the responsibilities were largely analogous and, with the post receiving £400 from the crown – an increase of £100 over the previous year – they had a duty to make up the balance themselves. The following day’s edition of The Star reported that “Jurat de Havilland said that the bailiff had spoken of his advanced age, but every one would agree as to his activity, his energy, and profound abilities. He hoped that Sir T Godfrey Carey would be spared for a long time to continue the work which he so ably performs”.

With such a ringing endorsement, it can hardly have been a surprise that the motion was carried, and the Bailiff’s salary was finally put on an official footing.

 

...and on this day in 2011

The States of Guernsey hired its first full-time vet in 2011. The successful candidate, David Chamberlain, had already worked as a vet on Guernsey since 1987. After a successful career that included an invention and a buy-out he was appointed to the part-time role on 7 November.

A varied career

After studying at the Royal Veterinary College, Chamberlain spent 21 years working as a general practitioner at Isabel Vets. Meanwhile, in the late 1990s, he came up with the idea of using the identifying microchip placed in most cats’ necks as a virtual key. It worked rather like the remote keys used to lock and unlock cars. Chamberlain had spotted that as the chip could be read wirelessly for identification purposes, that positive identifier could be used to unlock a catflap.

Thus, he invented PetPorte and, in the process, patented the microchip controlled flap. Production began on Guernsey and ran to 10,000 units a month, according to an interview in Official Vet Magazine.

Radio Systems Corporation later bought the intellectual property associated with the automated flap. It took on Chamberlain as a consultant.