Bombed nuns !!

[Lydart]

Right, lets start another topic, having exhausted the one about Nephew Franks car !!

This is another picture I found in Canada ... its a very tatty newspaper cutting, probably sent to relatives there from ones in London.  My questions are:

1.   does anyone know what sort of nuns these are ?
2.   what convent might they have come from ?  (It says its London)
3.   can we assume its WW2 ? 

Again, a bit of seemingly unimportant info from a RootsChatter might suddenly link me to info I already have ...

Here's hoping once again !

Lydart

[PrueM]

Hi Lydart 

Don't know what sort of nuns they are (my knowledge is limited to the Flying kind, and the Sound of Music kind!!) but the Times digital archive has two articles from 1940 referring to convents being bombed.

The first is 8 Oct 1940, a convent and convalescent home on the coast of Kent was bombed.  They were run by the Daughters of the Cross.
The second, more likely candidate, is from 5 Dec 1950 - the raid occured on the 3rd Dec, in London, and the convent was bombed when their cellar was being used as a public shelter.  I will transcribe a bit of the article and post it here.

Prue

[PrueM]

Home News
LONDON CONVENT BOMBED
MANY TRAPPED IN CELLARS
...
Rescue parties worked throughout yesterday seeking survivors in the ruins of one wing of a convent in London which was wrecked by a bomb on Tuesday night.  Between 80 and 90 people were trapped in the cellars, which were used as a public shelter, and though the majority were brought out alive, some were killed, including young children.  One woman lost her father and husband.
NUNS' ESCAPE
Twelve nuns at prayer in the convent chapel escaped, although bombs fell within a few yards of them.  The explosion flung a heavy door over their heads on to the altar steps and filled the chapel with debris and broken glass.  The nuns gave valuable help in assisting to rescue the trapped people.  A cinema near the convent was used as a first aid post.
Seven bombs fell in a line in the district.

The Times, Thursday 05 Dec 1940. pg. 2. Issue 48791. col A.

[PrueM]

Found another, smaller report of an earlier raid in London:

CONVENT DEMOLISHED

...A convent and the convent school...were demolished by bombs during the night, and one of eight sisters in the convent died while on her way to hospital.  Several houses in the same district were destroyed.

The Times, Wednesday 30 Oct 1940. p2. Issue 48760. col E.

[Auntie Rotter]

There was also a convent which was hit by a V2 in March 1945. It was next to the Catholic church at Dockhead in Bermondsey, South London. three priests were killed and the building was destroyed.
Was it a policy for newspapers not to give precise details of locations?

[Jean McGurn]

Would have thought it policy not to give precise locations of damage just in case it helped the enemy.

Seem to remember reading that when Coventry took a battering it was not named until much later.
 
This I believe is also why road signs were also removed.

Jean

[Lydart]

Well RootChatterers continue to amaze me !

Thanks, PrueM for the info from The Times.  How do you access it ?  Web-site ?  It could be a very useful source for me for other things I want to find out about.

There is a convent near where I live, and I know the sisters there... I'll take my tatty scrap of paper to them, and see if they can identify the order.  It would help me to know whereabouts in London these bombed nuns were, as it may have significance in my researches. 

Like your web-site ... I've also got 'pioneer' relatives, but in Canada and not so exciting as yours ... reading about how they lived in covered waggons and 'soddy' houses is fascinating ... fancy giving birth in a waggon !  They were tough in those days !

Lydart

PS ... if anyone is interested, the back of my scrap of paper is below ...

Moderator comment: resized for easier viewing

[PrueM]

Hi Lydart,
Have sent you a PM re The Times 
Good luck with the nuns!  Let us know what you find out.
Cheers
Prue

[Lydart]

More about the bombed nuns:

I was this week sorting out a load of my Mums stuff - she died in 2000, and its taken me a while to work through her 93 years of clobber ... she never threw anything away (a real find for family history research tho' ... except its like a muddle of several jig-saws, with many of the pieces missing, and you dont have the boxes with the pictures ...)

Anyway, back to the bombed nuns ... I was sorting thru' a box containing Mums collection of knitting patterns from the 1920's, 30', 40's 50's ... reading all the ads on the backs and amusing myself with bygone fashions and so on, and B I N G O there was an old, crumpled and crumbling newspaper cutting ... all about our nuns !   I've managed to read most of it, having had first to delicately iron it to straighten it out ... and it seems the nuns were Sisters of Mercy, based in Hammersmith or Fulham (can't decide which yet), and the bomb fell night of 3rd December, 1940.  As someone said in this topic, the places bombed weren't named for fear of informing the enemy. 

I'll get my scanner hooked up, and post some of it on this ... its fascinating reading. A child was saved from injury because she left the air-raid shelter to go and buy fish and chips ....  The relavance to my family must be that the bomb fell on or near Peabody Buildings, Hammersmith/Fulham ... more info needed here ! 

Any ideas from you brilliant researchers as to how I can find out more exactly where this happened; the newspaper this was in (date at top but unfortunately name of newspaper was cut off).  I suspect it was just a local Hammersmith/Fulham paper - someone had put an inky cross top and bottom of the cutting, so it must have had some family interest.  The modern newspaper cuttings I've collected over the years have all been about my children, or close friends, not national events.  The items on the back are of a local interest too, rather than national ... local football teams, etc.  Oh, and the picture I found in Canada had come out of another newspaper, because the hole in the piece I've just found, doesn't fit the shape of the cutting in Canada !

This is what makes family history SO fascinating ... it puts the flesh on the bones of mere lists of names, BMD's and censuses.

Best wishes to all .... Lydart