Katell Murphy and Mathew Nicholls went on holiday to Paris in the autumn where Mat chose a romantic setting to propose to Katell! Katell came to Herm in March 2005 to work for the summer season in the admin office. She has been here since then and has done a variety of jobs including working in the gift shops, in the snack bar, spring cleaning in the cottages and painting! Mat is the island boatman and came to Herm in April 2006. He skippers the Herm Sea Horse, the island cargo boat on the regular cargo trips during the summer months. They haven’t set a date for their wedding but are aiming for the spring of 2009 and would like to get married in Sri Lanka! They spent the New Year with their families – Mat’s live in Southampton and Katell’s live in the Isle of Skye.
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| Happy couple - Katell and Mat |
Regular visitors to the Herm website will have noticed that at the end of November the permanent island position of estate foreman was advertised. Euan Gillies is moving back to his native Scotland after working on Herm for four years. In that time he has left his mark on the island. He is responsible for the seat at the top of Belvoir hill which he carved out of the tree trunk when the tree came down in strong winds. His latest creation is a viewing platform on the grass bank opposite the gift shops which he constructed with help from ‘Big Tom’. Euan is moving back to Scotland in January with his girlfriend, Jane Scarre who has worked in the White House Hotel since 2000 when she came to work for the season as a chambermaid. Last season she worked as assistant manager. All the residents wish them good luck for their new life in Scotland.
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| Island residents gathered to present Euan and Jane with a framed photo of Herm. |