Background
Mission Ozanne was born in 1897, the daughter of a verger at Vale Church.
Mission Ozanne was born in 1897, the daughter of a verger at Vale Church.
Some earlier pieces can be found in Louisiana Gazette de Guernesey in the 1920s. Mission Ozanne will be remembered for starting the first Bird hospital in the world and for her extremely valuable Guernsey-French stories and poems. When he was ill she used to take on his responsibilities, including grave digging, and it was in the churchyard that she developed her lifelong love of birds.
To pay for the birds" feed she used to make shell animals and sell them at the market.
During the German Occupation she carried on with the bird hospital and a German officer often helped with food. After the Occupation Mission Ozanne gave up teaching and moved to Bon Air, Les Adams, L"Eree, where she continued to run the bird hospital until her death in 1973.
"The hospital became internationally known after the Occupation ended and it was perhaps the first of its kind in the world" (). Mission Ozanne had spoken Guernsey-French since her childhood and for many years wrote poems, sketches and humorous plays.
Some of these were performed at the Eiseddford (Guernsey) and others published in the Guernsey Evening Press.
"Mission Ozanne is the most important Guernsey French writer of the last century and on a par with the two principle Guernsey-French writers, George Metiviere and Denys Corbet" (Ken Hill, 1989). He commented that it was important to retain the original language as, in the 20th Century onwards, the puns and double entendres that she used do not work (). Mission Ozanne died at the Town Hall hospital, where she had been a patient for some time.
Her grave was discovered in 1988 and the Societe Guernesiaise organised a headstone on the grave.