30th July 1942

Albert Lamy appointed Guernsey Police Chief Officer

Albert Lamy joined Guernsey Police in 1928 and by the start of the occupation had risen to the rank of Clerk Sergeant and Secretary to the Island Police Committee. He was destined to go far further more quickly than he might have imagined.

As he wrote in the introduction to his own report into policing during the Occupation (PDF), “on 30 July 1942 [he] was appointed Acting Inspector (Chief Officer)… [and] had the most unenviable task of leading a depleted police force in an island under German occupation”.

Guernsey Police under Occupation

At the start of the Occupation, Guernsey Police was led by Inspector William Sculper. He had been appointed in 1930 after transferring from the London Metropolitan Police.

However, the Occupation force suspended him on account of his English background in 1942, and deported him with other “foreign”-born residents. Deputy Inspector Langmead took over, but was in the post for less than six months after 18 police offers had been caught, tried and convicted for stealing or receiving food and wood from military stores

Lamy was promoted to Acting Chief Officer; a role that he performed until the end of the Occupation. As recorded in the History of the Guernsey Police Force (PDF), “on 11th December 1945 [he] was awarded the British Empire Medal for services rendered during the occupation”.

The years following Occupation

When Schulper returned after the war, he resumed his old position and Lamy acted as his deputy until January 1946. Lamy was officially made Chief Officer upon Schulper’s retirement.

He was seconded to Southampton for a year in 1947, after which he returned to Guernsey and instituted a programme of modernisation across the island force.

Lamy remained in the role until 1965 when he retired and handed the baton to 49-year-old Chief Inspector Eric Howard. Howard resigned on the grounds of ill-health less than a year later, to be replaced by Inspector Cyril Eley.