Editing Sibyl Hathaway (section)

== Second World War ==
{{main|Sark during the German occupation of the Channel Islands}}

Hathaway's tenure as seigneur was interrupted by the [[German occupation of the Channel Islands]] in the [[Second World War]] from 3 July 1940 until 8 May 1945. While some inhabitants of other Channel Islands were evacuated, Hathaway declared that she would not leave her island, and prevailed upon all native-born islanders to remain as well.<ref name="Marr"/> 

Most of her tenants bitterly resented her for the decision to remain on Sark during the ensuing five years of occupation, but thanked her after the war when they saw how total evacuation destroyed the neighbouring island of [[Alderney]].<ref name="Marshall"/> The Dame had her senior official meet German officers at the harbour and escort them to her residence, where her maid announced them as if they were guests.<ref name="Bunting"/>

[[File:Proclamation Liberation Channel Islands 1945 Snow.jpg|thumb|Proclamation of liberation of the Channel Islands]]
Hathaway was much respected by the islanders as well as by the Germans, whose language she spoke perfectly, for the leadership she gave during this period, and the British [[Home Secretary]] [[Herbert Morrison]] observed that she remained "almost wholly mistress of the situation" throughout the occupation. Hathaway was on friendly terms with {{interlanguage link|Eugen Fürst zu Oettingen-Wallerstein|de}}, the German commander stationed in Guernsey, as indicated by their warm correspondence.<ref name="Bunting">{{cite book |author-link=Madeleine Bunting |last=Bunting |first=Madeleine |publisher=HarperCollins |title=The model occupation: the Channel Islands under German rule, 1940–1945 |year=1995 |page=80}}</ref> 

Many other German officers in charge of the Channel Islands were also of noble extraction, and Hathaway exploited their "stiff German formality" by making it clear that she "expected to be treated ... with the rigid etiquette to which they were accustomed in their own country."<ref name="Hathaway"/> She insisted that officers come to her rather than the other way around, and expected them to [[bowing|bow]], [[hand-kissing|kiss her hand]], and bow again before she allowed them to take a seat.<ref name="Marshall"/> Using her influence with the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein, she was able to get the German army physician stationed in Sark to treat her sick tenants.<ref name="Marshall">{{cite book |last=Marshall |first=Michael |publisher=Paramount-Lithoprint |title=Hitler envaded Sark |year=1967 |page=39}}</ref> When Germans ordered that all the Sarkese be instructed in German, the Dame offered a room in her residence as a classroom for the children of the island.<ref name="Fraser"/>

Hathaway's eldest son Francis and his second wife, the screen actress [[Mary Lawson (actress)|Mary Lawson]], were killed during the [[Liverpool Blitz]]; his son [[John Michael Beaumont|Michael]] became first in line to inherit the island.<ref name="Marr"/><ref name="Jersey">{{cite book |title=Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society |publisher=New Jersey Historical Society |year=1948}}</ref> Her husband was deported to [[Oflag VII-D|Ilag VII]] in [[Laufen, Germany|Laufen]] in Bavaria in February 1943, where he remained for the rest of the war.<ref name="Marr"/><ref name="Fraser"/> He did not sign any document delegating his seigneurial authority, which meant that legality of ordinances issued by Hathaway during this period was, at best, questionable. She refused to sign orders issued by Germans, arguing that they were simply not hers to sign. She was insulted by an order that prohibited sexual relations between her tenants and German troops on the grounds of [[sexually transmitted disease|venereal disease]] outbreak, since the order implied that Sarkese women consorted with Germans.<ref>{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Stoney |title=Sybil, Dame of Sark |publisher=Burbridge |year=1984 |isbn=0950936006 |page=153}}</ref>

According to British historian David Fraser, Sibyl did not raise her objection to a series of [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] orders that had been previously issued by the German authorities, which concerned among others her [[History of the Jews in the Czech Republic|Czech Jewish]] friend Annie Wranowsky.<ref name="Fraser">{{cite book |url=http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/jewish_studies/Fraser.htm |title=The Jews of the Channel Islands and the Rule of Law, 1940–1945: Quite Contrary to the Principles of British Justice |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |last=Fraser |first=David |year=2000 |pages=31, 148 |isbn=1902210484}}</ref>

Islanders suffered shortage of food in the last months of the occupation. Hathaway organised a raid on German grain stocks and saved many families from starvation with her secret potato hoard.<ref name="Marr"/> Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945. Three British officers arrived and, explaining that no British troops were available, asked the Dame to take command of 275 men belonging to the defeated German garrison.<ref name="Bunting"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Cruickshank |title=The German Occupation of the Channel Islands |year=1975}}</ref> She made sure the garrison cleared up the island of land mines.<ref name="Marr"/> She was, however, so concerned about the legal status of the decisions she had issued during the war that she sailed to Guernsey to validate them as soon as the island was liberated.<ref name="Hathaway">{{cite book |url=http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/jewish_studies/Fraser.htm |title=The Jews of the Channel Islands and the Rule of Law, 1940–1945: Quite Contrary to the Principles of British Justice |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |last=Fraser |first=David |year=2000 |isbn=1902210484}}</ref> Her experience of the German occupation inspired [[William Douglas-Home]]'s play ''The Dame of Sark''. Hathaway's manner of receiving Germans has been described as both impressive and overly cordial.<ref name="Marr"/> She felt there was nothing to be gained by being rude to them.<ref>{{cite book |first=Roy |last=McLoughlin |title=Living with the enemy |publisher=Seeker Publishing |year=2019 |edition=reprint |isbn=978-0952565901 |page=68}}</ref>