Ivy Forster (1907 – June 1997) was a politician from

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she and her family sheltered Russian forced labourers brought to the islands by the Nazis, activity that resulted in her sister being killed in a concentration camp. After the war, Forster was elected to the

States State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

in 1948, becoming its first female member.

Biography

Forster was born in 1907, one of nine children of the seaman Vincent Le Druillenec.Paul Sanders (2004) ''The ultimate sacrifice: The Jersey islanders s who died in German prisons and concentration camps during the Occupation 1940–1945'', pp65–71 During

and the

German occupation of the Channel Islands The military occupation of the Channel Islands by Nazi Germany lasted for most of the Second World War, from 30 June 1940 until liberation on 9 May 1945. The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey are British Crown dependencies in the ...

, both she and her sister Louisa sheltered Russian forced labourers. Forster and her husband Arthur took in Grigori Koslov in December 1942, with Koslov living in their attic. In 1944 a letter informing the Germans about Louisa sheltering another Russian, , was intercepted. Although Buriy was moved to Ivy's house, the

Geheime Feldpolizei The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'' (; ), shortened to GFP, was the secret military police of the German ''Wehrmacht'' until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plainclothes and undercover security work in the field. Their ope ...

found evidence of his stay at Louisa's home. Louisa was arrested on 25 May and Ivy a week later, by which time Buriy had moved on. Their brother Harold was later arrested as he had been seen visiting Louisa. All three were convicted; Louisa and Harold were initially jailed in France, before being sent to concentration camps; Louisa died in

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...

,Louisa Mary Gould née Le Druillenec
Frank Falla Archive while Harold was a survivor of

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

. Ivy was spared deportation due to being given an exemption on health grounds after a doctor pretended that she was suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. She instead served her prison sentence of five months and fifteen days in Jersey. Koslov and Buriy both survived the war. The events were later made into a film, ''

Another Mother's Son ''Another Mother's Son'' is a 2017 British war drama film directed by Christopher Menaul, written by Jenny Lecoat, and starring Jenny Seagrove, Julian Kostov, Ronan Keating, John Hannah, and Amanda Abbington. The film is based on a true sto ...

'', released in 2017. In 1948 she contested

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

to the States in the

Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...

constituency and became the first woman elected to the island's legislature.Prominent women
States of Jersey She was re-elected in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

, but lost her seat in

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

. She died in June 1997 at the age of 90. After her death she was named as one of the 29 British Heroes of the Holocaust.Courage of four Island heroes
Jersey Evening Post

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Ivy 1907 births 1997 deaths Jersey women in politics Deputies of Jersey British anti-fascists British prisoners and detainees Female resistance members of World War II British people imprisoned in Germany British Heroes of the Holocaust