My first postcard from Guernsey

Guernsey Icons

6 Aug 2014 | From Sue of Guernsey

POSTCROSSING SWAP

With only less than fifty members (March 2014), last March I was lucky enough to be able to send an official postcard to Guernsey. I was really excited to have given that address in the official Postcrossing. Five months later, I was really happy to have found this postcard in my mailbox :) Sue even attached a lovely Guernsey map onto the postcard.

The postcard shows a lot of Guernsey's famous icons. There's the cow, which according to Sue, gives them delicious rich milk and cream; a statue of Victor Hugo, a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement, who lived in Guernsey in exile from France for several years; a fort by the sea built to guard the island of Guernsey many years ago; and old Guernsey doorways which shows their typical architecture.

The flag of Guernsey is shown at the center of the postcard. It was adopted in 1985 and consists of the red cross of St. George with an additional gold cross within it. The change was prompted by confusion at international sporting events over competitors from Guernsey and England using the same flag. It was designed by the Guernsey Flag Investigation Committee chaired by the then Deputy Bailiff Graham Dorey and first flew in the island on 15 February 1985. The gold cross represents Duke William of Normandy, who, it is claimed, had such a cross on his flag in the Battle of Hastings, given to him by Pope Alexander II. A red ensign with the cross in the fly is used as civil ensign.