RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Zelley on Monday 10 November 08 10:38 GMT (UK)
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As we search through our own family trees, many of us will have those
sad chapters relating to some of our kin that were civilian casualties during
WW II such as those lost in London during the Blitz.
This thread is dedicated to them.
Some of my own lost during the Blizt include:
Great Aunt Martha Matilda (Kyne) Goodwin, Great Uncle John Goodwin,
second cousin Lilian Primrose Selley and her father William Selley.
They were killed in the residence of Martha and John
at New North Road in Shoreditch.
:'( :'( :'( :'(
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There are countless stories of those lost.
It was December 27, 1940 on Oldhill Street
when 14 year old Howard David Billing
would never open another Christmas gift.
Also lost that day was his father Barnet Billing
listed as an air raid warden fir Oldhill street.
Some other teenagers lost on 1940 in the Hackney region
include 19 year old Peter Afford, 14 year old June Bennett.,
and 13 year old Alfred Wilkins.
Then there was 28 year old Dora Winifred Vallance. She was injured
at the Station Building but died at The Metropolitan Hospital.
Seniors also paid a heavy price. One example is71 year old
Herbert Selley who died at the Hackney Hospital in 1941
and Annie & George Phillips of Rendlesham Road.
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My family was badly affected by WWII.
My uncle Patrick (joined voluntary) was wounded in France and luckily flown back to England. As one of the survivors from a nearby shell he was picked up by a motorbike and carried away.
My other uncle James (also joined voluntary) was captured in Normandy and was taken away to a POW camp, the effects of which badly affetced him mentally.
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While London took a heavy loss, other areas such as Chester to Liverpool
also had great losses.
One such case reported was the loss of nurse May Brandon at Great Barrow in 1940 or 63 year old Frank Ashcroft Brandon in the Bootle area in 1940.
The there were those areas in North Wales.
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With REMEMBRANCE DAY fast approaching, it is hoped we are able to take a minute or two to remember some of the civilians lost
in WW II.
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The bombing of Balham Tube Station on the 14th October 1940 and caused nearly 70 civilian deaths (I don't think anyone is really certain) and as many again wounded. It was 22nd December that same year before they managed to remove the last of the bodies.
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I believe I've floated this request before but, since this thread is dedicated to civilian casualites of the Blitz, I'm taking the liberty of raising the matter again:
-what we'd really like to know/have access to, is a complete list of all London civilian casualities of WW2- does this exist anywhere?
- or maybe a way of tracing one particular person, believed lost in the bombings.
( in brief, it is about a gentleman now 80 who was evacuated in 1941, cannot remember anything before then, who was never "reclaimed" after the war and so who remained very happily with his host family and has made a good life since- he has always assumed his parents were killed in the blitz, perhaps before he was evacuted, since he spent some short time in an orphanage in Shoreham before being sent north.)
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Hi bykerlads,
There are some civilian casualties listed on the CWGC site:
http://www.cwgc.org/
Nanny Jan
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Would the authorities have been able to identify every civilian killed in London's bombing raids? I've come across several on the CWGC but can't suggest anything else, unless the local authority for the area concerned had some kind of list ( but can't help thinking they would have passed it to the CWGC :-\)
How about turning the query on its head and see if there is any information about relatives being unable to trace a small boy?