Victor Carey

Who was Victor Carey?

Sir Victor Gosselin Carey was Bailiff of Guernsey. Carey was a leading member of one of Guernsey's oldest families. In 1935, when incumbent Baliff Arthur William Bell died, Carey, who had been Receiver General from 1912 to 1935, replaced him because Procurer Ambrose Sherwill, to whom the role would have normally fallen, had only been in office a few weeks.

During his term of office, Guernsey was occupied by the German military during World War II. During the Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands German authorities seized control of the Bailiwick. Age 69 at the beginning of the Occupation, Carey was considered too old to be able to function as the executive of the Island Authorities on his own. Therefore, in contrast to the situation in Jersey, the Baliff of Guernsey's powers were actually reduced during the Occupation as day-to-day running of Island affairs became the responsibility of a Controlling Committee of the States of Guernsey, chaired at first by Ambrose Sherwill, and after Sherwill's deportation by Jurat John Leale. The Baliff remained a higher authority, only entering into the political foray when the actions of the Controlling Committee had yielded an unsatisfactory outcome.