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. In the
Neolithic and
Bronze Ages, settlers arrived; the remains of
chamber tombs have been found on the island, and may be seen today; specifically on the Common, and the Petit and Grand Monceau;
Middle Ages The first records of Herm's inhabitants in historic times are from the 6th century, when the island became a centre of
monastic activity; the followers of
Saint Tugual (also called Tudwal) arrived, establishing
Saint Tugual's Chapel. An important moment in Herm's political history was in 933 AD, when the
Channel Islands were annexed to the
Duchy of Normandy, they remained so until the division of
Normandy in 1204, when they became a
Crown Dependency. In 1111 Brother Claude Panton was a hermit in "Erm" 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.
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,
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. Ten men of the
Small Scale Raiding Force and
No. 4 Commando under Captain
Patrick Anthony Porteous 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). They had failed to make contact with the few civilians on the island whose duties included looking after the sheep.
Since 1945 , 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". but they created a school, and restored St Tugual's Chapel. Major Wood's daughter Pennie Wood Heyworth and her husband Adrian succeeded them; that the tenants had put the remaining 40 years of their lease up for sale, with an asking price of £15,000,000. Within four days, there were over 50 potential buyers. In September 2008 it was announced that Starboard Settlement, a
trust, had acquired the remainder of the lease for considerably less than the asking price. The trust formed a company based in Guernsey, Herm Island Ltd, to manage the island for the trustees. 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. ==Geography and geology==