We are proud to officially launch, at the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, our online WW2 memorial, remembering those local service men and women – and civilians (very sadly including children) – who lost their lives in the Second World War.
A huge thanks to our volunteers, who have put so much time and effort into researching all of these tragic stories. A special thanks goes to Will Cooban (pictured above at the grave of Reginald Stafford), one of our Governors, who, as well as researching many of the stories, has managed the research project, and given an enormous amount of time, effort and expertise. (He is also behind our fabulous local history posts on Facebook).
Will says: “Every name researched reveals stories, family histories and local connections, but here are just three which made a deep impression on me;” (and Will is pictured below alongside them)
Alfred Read: “This is war’s bravest boy” ran the headline in the Daily Mirror in the summer of 1942; it would have been a headline read with anguish by the boy’s father at home in Welling, himself an ex-Royal Navy Petty Officer…As the article explained, young Alfred Read’s officer had said to him after Japanese bombers had attacked his ship and flooded the telephone station “You had better leave the station at once”…” I can’t sir” replied our young hero, “both my legs are off”.
Norman Harrison: Norman’s story was the most difficult to discover, and was only achieved by a stroke of luck – but it did eventually put us in contact with Norman’s granddaughter (who didn’t know about his name being on the memorial, but was delighted and proud to discover it).
Victor Roder: His name represents a reminder that WW2 was a civilian’s war too, and that lots of civilian casualties are remembered on the East Wickham memorial panel – and also because – as it turned out he was the granddad of one of Will’s closest friends, and he didn’t actually know this until Victor’s story was published – it is indeed a small world!
One of our greatest honours is when we are contacted by a family member of someone on our memorial. Often they are just grateful that we are remembering a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, but sometimes they provide gems – or even treasure troves – of information and photos.
One such treasure trove came from Edwina Miles, the daughter of Edward Vanderberg, a tram conductor before the war, who was killed by an exploding landmine in Weymouth. His wife, who had believed him to be safe, still on UK soil, was pregnant with Edwina at the time. Pictured below is Edwina holding a photo of Edward and also standing with Kelly, one of our researchers, and Edward’s niece, Angela.
Tributes to those who died are regularly posted on Facebook, but, if you have the time, you may like to read the fuller stories on our website. We are always looking to add to the stories on both our WW1 and WW2 online memorials so please do get in touch if you have any additional information.
We’d also like to thank Penny Duggan, at Bexley Local Studies for her help and support with the project.
“When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”
John Maxwell Edmonds