The Disasters In Gillingham We Must Never Forget

A Memory of Gillingham.

I have told you of my memories of the Gillingham bus distaster 4th Dec 1951 when me, Bob Dunford and my school friend Peter Gerard could not march with the Royal Marine Cadets because our suits never came in and all our friends died.
Well just think of this. My brother, John George Dunford was in the Naval Cadets in July 1929 when they had the Gillingham Park Disaster when all those children died and all those fireman died trying to save them, just because some idiot could not wait and caught the building alight too early. Well, my brother John, Jack as we called him, his Naval Cadet suit never arrived, like me, and he could not join the other boys.
They all burned alive with the firemen trying to save them. In Woodland Cemetery, Gillingham, you will see the children who died in the bus disaster, which I should have been in, and behind them the graves of the Naval Cadets of the Gillingham Park Disaster. So me and my brother, and a few more, would not be here today if our suits had come in.
Little bit more on my brother Jack; when the Second World War started he joined up and was put in the Seventh Army, with Field Marshal Montgomery. A night, long after the war was finished, he was telling me some things he witnessed when he was in the desert and Montgomery gave his speech, about "this is the last stand Britain has - if we do not stop them here they will go into Britain". When the shooting started they were all dug in. My brother heard like a whistle, and a soldier next to him just fell into the hole, dead, one of the German tank snipers had shot him. Well, as you know, they went all the way into Germany. One day just outside of Germany, their Commander told them to rest up for a time. The tea cans came out, then some soldiers were chosen, my brother for one, to go to a concentration camp where they were told the American Army were gong to shoot their own Officers and they must stop it. When they got there, it seems the Germans were trying to burn the bodies of the Jews. The Americans wanted to shoot all the Germans, but their officers said no, you can't, we must take them prisoners of war. So the Americans got annoyed, because there was a mound of bodies, all naked, women, children, men, all up on a pile. My brother said it must have been 30 ft high of bodies, some still alive and moving. We stopped the Americans and all worked together, pulling these bodies out. The First Aid Officers were taking the live ones away, making a hospital tent.
One more thing, when my brother signed up, I was just 2 years old. When he came home Dec 1945, I was 8 years old. Of course I could not remember him. So when our front door was knocked, I opened it, there was a Soldier standing there and I said "can I help you". He said "no, I am your brother, let me in".
Next thing I remember I went to Richmond Road School, our Headmaster was Mr Beer - the very first person to be on This Is Your Life on television.
I have so many memories -like others, they should not be forgotten.