VP2LC 1939 St. Lucia

The YL Marie L. Devaux (1917 - 2009) was one of the very few early radio amateurs on the island of Saint Lucia, besides her cousin Louis Devaux (1909 - 1975), VP2LB. A shack view and a detailed description of her station were published in the Sept 1939 issue of QST (pp. 60/61).

Her full name was Therese Lucie Marie Devaux, born in Castries, St. Lucia, and a descendant of the prominent Devaux family of planters and merchants of French origin. Her father Louis Marie Josephe Jean 'John' Devaux (1873 – 1960) was co-owner of the sugar business Morne Courbaril in Soufriere and chief accountant of the Bank in Castries.

In Jan 1941 she married Archibald Walter 'Bill' Forbes (1899 - 1996) from Bermuda who was a radio engineer for commercial wireless systems and who worked for the British Government on St. Lucia during the war. The QST issue of Feb 1941 (p.58) printed a short notification of her marriage. In 1948 the young family moved to Bermuda where after a long life Marie died in 2009 in her 92nd year. She had four children.

The QSL card to VE2LC for their QSO on Aug 25, 1939 is not only remarkable for the similarity of both call-signs, but mainly for her comment: "Dear VE2LC By some strange coincidence this QSO wid u was the last I had – the next day the Govt. ordered the shack closed. I guess u too must have come under the Censor’s ban so u know what it feels like – Lets hope we [w]ill meet agn when things return to normal – but when will [underlined] that be? 73".

Due to the imminent war against Poland instigated by the Germans the British Postmaster General published a notice in the 'London Gazette' on Aug 31, 1939 that "all licenses for the establishment of wireless telegraph sending and receiving stations for experimental purposes are hereby withdrawn." For a reproduction of this notice see “The T.& R. BULLETIN” (= the official journal of the RSGB) from Sept. 1939, P.170. The transmitting equipment was impounded. Similar actions of license withdrawal were executed in other countries of the British Commonwealth at the same time. Australian radio operators, for example, were instructed by telegram to cease radio operations and disable radio equipment.

The QSO with VE2LC might have been the very last made by Marie, because she didn't seem to have acquired a VP9 call-sign after 1948.

Courtesy of Norbert Maibaum