States of Alderney representatives to the Guernsey States of Deliberation. The island is a self-governing Crown Dependency, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey since Elizabethan times. Certain services, known as 'transferred services' are provided in Alderney by the Guernsey Government under an agreement entered into between the States of Alderney and the States of Guernsey in 1948 ('the 1948 Agreement'). Defence and Foreign Policy are reserved to the Crown, which in modern constitutional terms means the relevant United Kingdom government (the Ministries of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UK liaises with Alderney (as with all Crown Dependencies), through the Ministry
Fortifications of Alderney when the Island was attacked by pirates or used by pirates as it was undefended. The Island Militia may have existed for centuries, as did the Militias of Guernsey and Jersey. King Edward III of England authorised Thomas de Ferres in 1337 to “levy and train” militias in the Guernsey, Jersey, Sark and Alderney, to the use of arms and to aray them in thousands, hundreds and twenties. The first mention of a militia commander, Captain Nicholas Ling, was noted in the records in 1657. Without fortifications apart from a decaying Essex Castle and the Nunnery and few if any