A Fine Summers Evening Shattered

Hello John

You and your family were lucky then.

Records show that four died due to that raid. Marian Scowen (86) of 6 Mount View Road who died later on 4 September, Alfred Legg (45) of 10 Mount View Road, Rosina Wright (63) of 16 Mount View Road & George Ernest Malley (36) of 30 Warren Road who died the next day.

Robert

Hello Mr Seabrook and interesting to read your comment. A curious circumstance also occured at this incident. Dr Hayes had stopped his car in Mountview Road to speak to a policeman, and stayed in his car and suffered bad cuts. The policeman shouted to Mr Malley - the Town Clerk as it happened, to lie down in the gutter to avoid any blast from the bomb that was seen to be rapidly approaching, but Mr Malley was in his Sunday suit and baulked at the idea of lying in the road and payed the ultimate price. The policeman had minor injuries, the blast from the 1 ton warhead passing above him. The Allies and Germany were all guilty of terrible war crimes seen from today's perspective.

Hello John

Thanks for this.

My information came from "Chingford at War", which perhaps you are already familiar with. My copy was given to my father who was a 2nd WW and D-Day veteran.

Lists and statistics like those in the book can't impart the personal stories and details that you have recounted.

Thanks again.

Robert Seabrook

Hello again Robert. I do have a reprint copy of 'Chingford at War' and it has a red cover. The original book had a blue cover and must be something of a collectors item now. Several of the photos were taken many months after the incidents when the houses were being rebuilt. Did your parents live close to Mountview Road? I just wonder if I knew them by sight at any rate. You must be most proud of your Father's memory as he served during D-Day; What a terrifying few days it must have been for them and we owe them such a debt for getting rid of the NAAZIs. We certainly live in better times now .
Best Wishes

John Grant

Hello John

My parents lived in Larkshall Road between Endlebury Road and Dale View Avenue. So did I until I was four years old when we moved in 1948.

Before the war dad drove a delivery van for the Victoria Wine Company in Station Road. If your family were used to having deliveries of wine at the time they might well have met him. I do have a picture of him outside the house in Larkshall Road standing beside his delivery van.

Dad scarcely ever talked about the war - they didn't. I took him back to Juno Beach in 1994 when he was 82. He landed there on the morning of D-Day and had some trouble getting off the beach as he was under fire. He then went on through France and Belgium to Germany. I have a picture of him holding me aloft age 2 or 3 taken in Ridgeway Park shortly after the war.

Yes - I'm really very proud of him; and of my mother too who, like so many wives of servicemen, brought up children when their husbands were away for so long and in such danger.

It is gratifying to witness the genuine expressions of remembrance and gratitude carried on year after year.

Best wishes

Robert

We didn't have wine or any other drinks delivered so I didn't see your father. A fairly tee-total household. I did have a pal down Larkshall road - Andrew Helen by name, in the 1943 to 1947 era. Best Wishes

John Grant