Distinguished Jersey politician who negotiated the island’s special relationship with the European Union
Ralph Vibert was one of Jersey’s most distinguished politicians. In the words of the Bailiff of Jersey, Sir Philip Bailhache, he was “the greatest man” to have served the island in the half century following Jersey’s liberation from Nazi occupation during World War II. Most significantly, he negotiated, in 1967, the island’s special relationship with the European Union, after the Home Office in Westminster informed the island that year that the UK was seeking entry to the European Economic Community. And he laid the foundations of Jersey’s economic prosperity after his appointment as the President of the Finance and Economics committee in 1980.
“He could be, and usually was, very affable, but he could, when he deemed it necessary, also bite,” Sir Philip told the opening of the States Assembly on 2 December in his tribute to Vibert. “But the bite was always political and never personal.”
An accomplished lawyer, Vibert first joined the Jersey administration as Solicitor General in 1948, and served for 30 years as Deputy and Senator in the States of Jersey, the island’s parliament. He was president of many of the committees of the States, and it was as President of the Constitutional and Common Market Committee that he steered through the detailed negotiations which won the special arrangements for the island with what is now the European Union. The agreement applied not just to Jersey but also the other Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The UK's Treaty of Accession to the European Union excluded Jersey from most of the effects of the treaty, other than those concerning trade in goods, and the island is not a member of the Union.
Born in 1911, Ralph Vibert won an open scholarship to Victoria College where he became head prefect. He started work as the private secretary to the Attorney General and read for the Bar exams in the evenings. He was sworn in as an advocate in 1934.
During the war he served as an army major, as an instructor with the Special Operations Executive in England and then in Calcutta for four years. This involved training SOE field agents in the use of codes, how to live in occupied countries undetected, and how to withstand interrogation. His training was so tough that some said they would rather be interrogated by the enemy than by him.
Returning to Jersey after the war he was appointed Solicitor General in 1948 and continued work in the administration until 1955 when he resigned after disagreements with the then Attorney General. He returned to private law practice.
He entered politics in 1957, elected as Deputy for his home district of St Brelade, and became a Senator in 1959 – a post he held until his retirement in 1987. At one point he was leading three important committees simultaneously. Following the sudden death in office of the president of the Finance and Economics Committee (the equivalent of Chancellor of the Exchequer) in 1980, Senator Vibert was elected unopposed to the position, reflecting the great sense of trust in which he was held amongst his colleagues, as their most senior member and Father of the House. He had already been appointed an OBE in 1977 for his services to the island.
Following the Falklands War in 1982, Vibert successfully proposed a donation of £5 million from Jersey to the Falkland Islands, arguing that the two communities had shared the experience of enemy occupation.
He had married, in 1939, Muriel LeGros, the daughter of a leading Jersey lawyer. After her death in 1996 he married Christine Heslop, a teacher originally from Yorkshire. She survives him along with his son and four daughters from his first marriage.
A man of strong Christian faith, which informed his decision-making, Vibert had a great love for people. This was strengthened by his commitment to Moral Re-Armament (now renamed Initiatives of Change) and he travelled to South Africa and the then Rhodesia with MRA in a work of racial reconciliation and justice. In Jersey he took a leading role in church and community affairs. He was the first Chairman of the Jersey Youth Movement and was for many years Secretary to the Jersey Decanal Synod. He also served as President of the Jersey Council of Churches.
Ralph Vibert, Jersey politician, born 7 November 1911, died 10 November 2008.
English