Editing Herm (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of Guernsey|Archaeology of the Channel Islands}}
[[File:Hermdunord.jpg|left|thumb|The common in the north of the island. Standing stones can be seen on the grass, while the island of [[Sark]] lies in the background.]]

===Prehistory===
Herm was first found in the [[Mesolithic]] period (between 10,000 and 8,000 BC), when hunters were in search of food.<ref name="History">{{cite web | url=http://herm.com/files/pdf/History_-_16th_to_21st_Century.pdf | title=History – Up to the 16th Century | publisher=Herm Island | access-date=28 December 2013 | archive-date=2 January 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102200403/http://herm.com/files/pdf/History_-_16th_to_21st_Century.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> In the [[Neolithic]] and [[Bronze Age]]s, settlers arrived; the remains of [[chamber tomb]]s have been found on the island, and may be seen today; specifically on the Common, and the Petit and Grand Monceau;<ref name="History"/> it has been suggested that the northern end of the island, i.e. the Common, was set apart for burials.<ref name="Durham"/> After a three-year project by the [[University of Durham]], supported by specialists from the [[University of Cambridge]], the [[University of Oxford]], and the Guernsey museum, they stated that the "density of tombs suggests that the northern end of Herm may have been a place set apart for funerary activity".<ref name="Durham">{{cite web | url=http://www.dur.ac.uk/herm.project/ | title=Introduction | publisher=Durham University | access-date=31 December 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Roberts Cross Herm.jpg|thumb|right|A prehistoric grave, known as Robert's Cross]]

===Middle Ages===
The first records of Herm's inhabitants in historic times are from the 6th century, when the island became a centre of [[Monasticism|monastic activity]]; the followers of [[Saint Tugual]] (also called Tudwal) arrived, establishing [[Saint Tugual's Chapel]].<ref name="History"/> In 709 AD, a storm washed away the strip of land which connected the island with [[Jethou]].<ref name="Island life">{{cite web|url=http://www.islandlife.org/herm.htm |title=Welcome to the Herm Home Page |publisher=Island Life |date=2011 |access-date=31 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150816183442/http://www.islandlife.org/Herm.htm |archive-date=16 August 2015}}</ref>

An important moment in Herm's political history was in 933 AD, when the [[Channel Islands]] were annexed to the [[Duchy of Normandy]],<ref name="History "/><ref name="Annex">{{cite web | url=http://www.iexplore.com/travel-guides/europe/united-kingdom/channel-islands/sark-and-herm/history-and-culture | title=Sark and Herm Travel Guide | publisher=iExplore | access-date=31 December 2013}}</ref> they remained so until the division of [[Normandy]] in 1204, when they became a [[Crown Dependencies|Crown Dependency]].<ref name="Legal">{{cite web | url=http://herm.com/files/pdf/History_-_Legal_Dispositions.pdf | title=Legal Dispositions of Herm Island | publisher=Herm Island | access-date=28 December 2013 | archive-date=2 January 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102195909/http://herm.com/files/pdf/History_-_Legal_Dispositions.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1111 Brother Claude Panton was a hermit in "Erm"<ref name=WBhist/>{{rp|126}} and in 1117 the then hermit, Brother Francis Franche Montague is recorded as living on "Erm".<ref name="WBhist">{{cite book |first=William |last=Berry |title=The History of Guernsey from the remotest period of antiquity to the year 1814}}</ref>{{rp|131}} After the annexation, Herm gradually lost its monastic inhabitants, and between 1570 and 1737 the governors of Guernsey used it as a hunting ground; visiting to shoot, hunt, and fish.<ref name="History"/><ref name="Annex "/>

===19th century to the Second World War===
In 1810, an inn was founded; and during the [[Industrial Revolution]], roads, paths, a harbour, accommodation, a forge, blacksmiths, a brewery, a bakery and a prison were built to cater for the largest number of inhabitants since prehistoric times. Most were quarrymen working in new [[granite]] quarries.<ref name="History"/> Several quarries can still be seen at present, such as on the Common.<ref name="History"/> When Prince Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt <ref name="History "/> and [[Evelyn Princess Blücher|Princess Blücher]]{{sfn|Evelyn|1921|p=vii}} leased the island from the British government in 1889, he introduced a colony of [[Red-necked wallaby|red-necked wallabies]] to the island, which lasted until 1910. Offspring were "said to have been eaten as food by English soldiers occupying the island during World War 2".{{sfn|Long|2003|p=42}}

[[Compton Mackenzie]], an English-born Scottish novelist, acquired the tenancy in 1920. He recalled that his three years there had numerous logistical problems. It has been suggested that Mackenzie was the basis for the character Mr Cathcart in [[D.H. Lawrence]]'s ''The Man who Loved Islands'', about a man who moved to ever smaller islands much as Mackenzie moved from Herm to the smaller [[Jethou]], but Lawrence himself denied it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/mac/comptonmackenzie.html |title=Compton Mackenzie: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland |work=Undiscoveredscotland.co.uk |access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Bunting, Madeleine |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/08/hebrides-shaped-british-culture-madeleine-bunting |title=Island mentality: how the Hebrides shaped British culture |work=The Guardian |date=8 October 2016 |access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref> [[Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry]] was the tenant from 1923 to 1939.

The [[German occupation of the Channel Islands]] during the Second World War essentially by-passed Herm. The island was claimed on 20 July 1940 by [[Nazi Germany]],<ref name="History"/> a few weeks after the arrival of German troops in [[Guernsey]] and [[Jersey]]; German soldiers landed on the island to shoot a propaganda film, ''The Invasion of the [[Isle of Wight]].''<ref name="History"/> Herm's sandy beaches were soon used for practising landings from barges, in preparation for the [[Operation Sealion|invasion of England]], but otherwise the island saw little of the Germans beyond officers making trips to shoot rabbits.{{sfn|Page|1995}} Herm had only a little German construction during the war; a [[flak|flak battery]] was placed on the island for a few weeks, and mines were placed in an area.{{sfn|Page|1995}} Occasionally German soldiers would travel to Herm to cut wood for fuel.<ref>{{cite book |first=Martin |last=Le Page |title=A Boy Messenger's War: Memories of Guernsey and Herm 1938-45 |publisher=Arden Publications (1995) |isbn=978-0952543800}}</ref>

====Operation Huckaback====
[[Operation Huckaback]] was a British Second World War military operation that was originally designed to be a raid on Herm, Jethou and Brecqhou, but instead became only a raid on Herm undertaken on the night of 27 February 1943, following an earlier attempt that had been aborted.{{sfn|Forty|2005|p=195}} Ten men of the [[Small Scale Raiding Force]] and [[No. 4 Commando]] under Captain [[Patrick Anthony Porteous]] {{post-nominals|country=GBR|VC}} landed 200 yards to the north-west of Selle Rocque on a shingle beach and made several unsuccessful attempts to climb the cliff in front of them. Porteous finally managed to climb up the bed of a stream and pulled the others up with a rope. They later reported that they had found no sign of any Islanders or Germans (who were supposed to be billeted near the harbour).{{sfn|Messenger|1985}} They had failed to make contact with the few civilians on the island whose duties included looking after the sheep.

===Since 1945===
[[File:White House Hotel, Herm 1968 - geograph.org.uk - 85.jpg|thumb|left|[[White House (Herm)|White House]], Herm]]
In 1949, the [[States of Guernsey]] bought Herm from [[the Crown]] because of the "unspoilt island idyll that could be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike".<ref name="Independent"/> One of the island's most influential tenants was Major Peter Wood, who looked after the island from 1949 to 1980 with his wife.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wood |first1=Jenny |title=Herm, Our Island Home |date=1986 |publisher=Linton |location=Guernsey |isbn=978-0951118702}}</ref><ref name="Independent"/><ref name="Staff "/> The island was run down when he arrived, with the manor hidden in undergrowth, the windows and roofs of the houses having been blown off by a sea mine drifting into the harbour shortly after their arrival,<ref name="tig">{{cite web|url=http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2006/03/20/a-life-less-ordinary/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130629095005/http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2006/03/20/a-life-less-ordinary/|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 June 2013|title=A Life Less Ordinary|date=20 March 2006|access-date=29 June 2013}}</ref> but they created a school, and restored St Tugual's Chapel.<ref name="Staff">{{cite web | url=http://herm.com/files/pdf/staff_handbook_2013.pdf | title=Herm Island Staff Handbook 2013 | publisher=Herm Island | date=2013 | access-date=29 December 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102200546/http://herm.com/files/pdf/staff_handbook_2013.pdf | archive-date=2 January 2014 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> Major Wood's daughter Pennie Wood Heyworth and her husband Adrian succeeded them;<ref name="Staff"/> Major Wood died in 1998.<ref name="Staff"/> Their early efforts are recorded in ''Herm, Our Island Home'', written by Major Wood's wife Jenny Wood.{{sfn|Wood|1972}}

On 17 May 2008, the [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] reported<ref name="BBC Date">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/guernsey/7406165.stm | title=Lease on Channel Island for sale | publisher=BBC | date=17 May 2008 | access-date=29 December 2013}}</ref> that the tenants had put the remaining 40 years of their lease up for sale, with an asking price of £15,000,000.<ref name="BBC Price">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/guernsey/7522028.stm | title=Candidate picked for Herm tenancy | publisher=BBC | date=23 July 2008 | access-date=29 December 2013}}</ref> Within four days, there were over 50 potential buyers.<ref name="Buyers">{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/internationalproperty/3361507/Island-for-sale-A-Herm-from-home.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131129194018/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/internationalproperty/3361507/Island-for-sale-A-Herm-from-home.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=29 November 2013 | title=Island for sale: A Herm from home | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=7 June 2008 | access-date=1 January 2014 | author=Eames, Andrew}}</ref> In September 2008 it was announced that Starboard Settlement, a [[Trust law|trust]], had acquired the remainder of the lease<ref name="Lease">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/guernsey/7657576.stm | title=New company is set up to run Herm | publisher=BBC | date=7 October 2008 | access-date=29 December 2013}}</ref> for considerably less than the asking price.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2008/09/23/new-herm-tenants-vow-to-keep-it-open-to-all/ |title=New Herm tenants vow to keep it open to all |date=23 September 2008 |publisher=This Is Guernsey |access-date=22 May 2013 |archive-date=22 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522150840/http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2008/09/23/new-herm-tenants-vow-to-keep-it-open-to-all/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The trust formed a company based in Guernsey, Herm Island Ltd, to manage the island for the trustees.<ref name="Lease"/>

In 2013, negotiations for a 21-year extension to the lease broke down, with the tenant offering £440,000 and the owner requesting £6,000,000 plus improvements to infrastructure,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guernseypress.com/news/2013/10/04/deputies-want-to-know-why-herm-talks-broke-down/ |title=Deputies want to know why Herm talks broke down}}</ref> the offer was later reduced to £2.44 million. In 2023 the lease to Starboard Settlement Charitable Trust was extended to 2069 for an undisclosed sum.<ref>{{cite web |title=P&R refuses to reveal cost of Herm lease extension |url=https://guernseypress.com/news/2023/06/07/pr-refuses-to-reveal-cost-of-herm-lease-extension/ |date=7 June 2023}}</ref>