Alderney shares its prehistory with the other islands in the
Bailiwick of Guernsey; it became an island in the
Neolithic period as the waters of the
English Channel rose. Formerly rich in
dolmens, like the other Channel Islands, Alderney with its heritage of
megaliths has suffered through the large-scale military constructions of the 19th century and also by the Germans during the
World War II occupation, who left the remains at Les Pourciaux unrecognisable as dolmens. A
cist survives near
Fort Tourgis, and Longis Common has remains of an
Iron Age site. There are traces of Roman occupation including a fort, built in the late 300s, at above the island's only natural harbour. The
etymology of the island's name is obscure. It is known in
Latin as
Riduna but, as with the names of all the Channel Islands in the Roman period, there is a degree of confusion.
Riduna may be the original name of
Tatihou, while Alderney is conjectured to be identified with
Sarnia.
Alderney/
Aurigny is variously supposed to be a Germanic or Celtic name. It may be a corruption of
Adreni or
Alrene, which is probably derived from an Old Norse word meaning "island near the coast". Alternatively, it may derive from three Norse elements:
alda (swelling wave, roller),
renna (strong current, race) and
öy or
-ey (island). Alderney may be mentioned in
Paul the Deacon's
Historia Langobardorum (I.6) as 'Evodia' in which he discussed a certain dangerous whirlpool. The name 'Evodia' may in turn originate from the seven 'Haemodae' of uncertain identification in
Pliny the Elder's
Natural History (IV 16 (30) or
Pomponius Mela's
Chronographia (III 6,54). Along with the other Channel Islands, Alderney was annexed by the
Duchy of Normandy in 933. In 1042, William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy (later
William the Conqueror, King of the English), granted Alderney to the Abbey of
Mont Saint-Michel. In 1057, the Bishop of
Coutances took back control of the island. After 1204, when mainland Normandy was incorporated into the
Kingdom of France, Alderney remained loyal to the English monarch in his dignity of
Duke of Normandy.
Henry VIII of England undertook
fortification works, but these ceased in 1554.
Essex Castle perpetuates the name of the
Earl of Essex, who purchased the governorship of Alderney in 1591. Prior to the Earl's execution for treason in 1601, he leased the island to William Chamberlain, and Alderney remained in the hands of the Chamberlain family until 1643. From 1612, a
Judge was appointed to assist the Governor's administration of Alderney, along with the
Jurats. The function of the Judge was similar to that of the Bailiffs of
Guernsey and
Jersey, and continued until 1949. During the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Alderney was held by a Parliamentary garrison under
Nicholas Ling, Lieutenant-Governor. Ling built Government House (now the Island Hall). The de Carterets of Jersey acquired
the governorship, later passing it to
Sir Edmund Andros of Guernsey, from whom the Guernsey family of Le Mesurier inherited it, thus establishing a hereditary line of governors that lasted until 1825. Henry Le Mesurier prospered through
privateering, and moved the harbour from Longis to Braye, building a
jetty there in 1736. Warehouses and dwellings were built at Braye, and the export of cattle generated wealth for the economy. The Court House was built in 1770 and a school in 1790. A
Methodist chapel was constructed in 1790, following
John Wesley's visit in 1787. An
optical telegraph tower was constructed above La Foulère in 1811, enabling signals to be relayed visually to Le Mât in
Sark and on to Guernsey – early warning of attack during the
Napoleonic Wars was of strategic importance. With the end of those wars privateering was ended and smuggling suppressed, leading to economic difficulties. These fortifications were presciently described by
William Ewart Gladstone as "a monument of human folly, useless to us ... but perhaps not absolutely useless to a possible enemy, with whom we may at some period have to deal and who may possibly be able to extract some profit in the way of shelter and accommodation from the ruins." An influx of English and Irish labourers, plus the sizeable British garrison stationed in the island, led to rapid Anglicisation. The
harbour was never completed – the remaining breakwater (designed by
James Walker) is one of the island's landmarks, and is longer than any breakwater in the UK.
Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert visited Alderney on 9 August 1854. The Albert Memorial and the renaming of Rue Grosnez to Victoria Street commemorate this visit. However, boats from Guernsey came and collected some of them before the
German Army arrived, on the basis that it was best for their personal safety. During the
Second World War, the Channel Islands were the only part of the
British Isles that was
occupied by Germany, although other parts of the Empire were occupied by the
Axis powers. memorial plaque The Germans arrived to a nearly deserted island, and began to follow their orders to fortify Alderney as part of Hitler's
Atlantic Wall. In January 1942, they built four
camps in Alderney: two work camps,
Lager Helgoland and
Lager Borkum, and two concentration camps,
Lager Sylt and
Lager Norderney. The jail behind the main police station was used by the Nazis as a prison. The camps were built by the
Nazi Organisation Todt (OT) to house the labour used to build
fortifications including
bunkers, gun emplacements, tunnels, air-raid shelters and other concrete and field fortifications. Lager Norderney, containing Russian and Polish
POWs, and the
Lager Sylt camp holding
Jewish slave labourers, were transferred to
SS administration in March 1943 under the control of
Hauptsturmführer Maximilian List. There are 397 graves in Alderney, which when added to the men who died in ships, takes the total to over 700 out of a total inmate population of 6,000 who died before the camps were closed and the remaining inmates transferred to France in 1944. On the return to their island, Alderney evacuees had little or no knowledge of the crimes committed on their island during the occupation, because by December 1945, the first date civilians could return home, all the slave labourers had been sent away and the majority of the German troops left behind were not senior staff. Evidence, however, was all over the island, with concrete fortifications and graveyards for the prisoners kept there during the occupation. The
Royal Navy blockaded the islands from time to time, particularly following the
liberation of Normandy in 1944. Intense negotiations resulted in some
Red Cross humanitarian aid, but there was considerable hunger and privation during the five years of German occupation, particularly in the final months when the Germans themselves were close to starvation. The Germans surrendered Alderney on 16 May 1945, eight days after the
Allies formally accepted the
unconditional surrender of the armed forces of
Nazi Germany and the
end of World War II in Europe, and seven days after the liberation of Guernsey and Jersey. 2,332 German prisoners of war were removed from Alderney on 20 May 1945, leaving 500 Germans to undertake clearing up operations under British military supervision. The people of Alderney could not start returning until December 1945 due to the huge cleanup operation needed simply to make the island safe for civilians. When the islanders returned home they were shocked to see the state of the island, with many houses completely derelict: the Germans had burned anything wooden, including front doors, for fuel. Archival and object evidence of the general evacuation in 1940 and the subsequent occupation of Alderney can be found in the
Alderney Society Museum. In 1949, two former
SS officials from the
Lager Norderney concentration camp, SS
Obersturmführer Adam Adler and
Lagerführer Heinrich Evers, were prosecuted in
France for crimes committed during their administration of the camp. Adler was sentenced to ten years, while Evers received a seven-year sentence. Members of the Association des Anciens Déportés d'Aurigny considered the sentences overly lenient. A 1945 British military report, known as the Pantcheff Report, documented that eight French nationals had perished in the Alderney camps. In May 2024, an investigative commission led by
Lord Pickles concluded that between 641 and 1,027 individuals likely died in the Nazi camps on Alderney. The report highlighted the atrocious conditions faced by forced labourers, who endured starvation, dangerously long hours, hazardous construction tasks, frequent abuse, torture, inadequate housing, and, in some cases, execution. A series of tunnels also remain in place on Alderney, constructed by forced labour. These are in varying degrees of decay, being left open to the public and the elements.
Since 1945 For two years after the end of the war, Alderney was operated as a communal farm. Craftsmen were paid by their employers, while others were paid by the local government out of the profit from the sales of farm produce. Remaining profits were put aside to repay the British Government for repairing and rebuilding the island. The local people resented being unable to control their own land; this led to the United Kingdom
Home Office setting up an enquiry that led to the "Government of Alderney Law 1948", which came into force on 1 January 1949. The law organised the construction and election of the
States of Alderney and the justice system; and, for the first time in Alderney, the imposition of taxes. The legislature and judiciary were separated. The position of Judge, who had headed the island's government since the resignation of the last Governor in 1825, was abolished, and the Jurats were removed from their legislative function. Because of the island's small population, it was believed that the island could not be self-sufficient in running the airport and the
harbour, or providing services that would match those of the UK. Taxes were therefore collected into the general Bailiwick of Guernsey revenue funds at the same rate as in Guernsey, and administered by the
States of Guernsey. Guernsey became responsible for providing many government functions and services. The 20th century saw much change in Alderney, from the building of the
airport in the late 1930s to the death of the last speakers of the island's
Auregnais language, a dialect of the
Norman language. The economy has gone from depending largely on
agriculture to earning money from the
tourism and finance industries. E-commerce has become increasingly important, and the island hosts the
domain name registry for both Bailiwicks and dozens of gambling website operators. Alderney has a full regulatory authority in operation. ==Politics==