Slave headstone leads to appeal

Slave workers were brought to Jersey during the German occupation

The discovery of a headstone from the grave of a slave worker who died during World War II has led to an appeal for information on a former cemetery.

Mohammed Barouche is named on the stone, found at Mont a L'Abbe on a wall near Overdale Hospital, last week.

The Société Jersiaise said the man is thought to have been a North African slave worker, buried in a cemetery which had been based on the site.

The research group said it now aimed to trace information about the cemetery.

Slave workers were brought to the island by the occupying Germans during World War II.

'Airbrushed out'

Researchers from the Société are trying to piece together information about the location of the cemetery.

Anna Baghiani, from the Société, told BBC Jersey: "There is a plan of that site, it must have been done after the occupation, and it lists a number of Russians, Algerians, Spaniards, French and Germans who were interred there so it's not a secret.

"What is the mystery is that it has been airbrushed out of history.

"We've got the dilemma that there aren't many known facts about the exact dates that the graveyard was moved."

Ms Baghiani said she wanted to hear from anybody who was involved in moving graves, asking them to contact her if they had any photographic records of the area, "particularly residents of the Clubley Estate, Richelieu Park and around the site of Overdale who remember that area and the layout and any information regarding the removal of stones".