Sergeant C. Allington Sergeant C. Allington, of North Road, Bromley (Kent), joined Regular Army in 1914 and went out with the first contingent of the Bromley Volunteers at the time of the South African War in 2nd Volunteer Battalion of Royal West Kent Regiment. He had previously served first with Royal West Kent Regiment, then with the Army Service Corps in France (attached to the Royal Engineers), and had previously been with the Suffolk Regiment in India. He died on 23rd July, 1920 after a long illness caused by being…
Category: Extracts
Leading-stoker Ernest Bourne
Leading-Stoker Ernest Bourne Ernest Bourne of Canon Road, Bromley (Kent) spent 8 and a half years with navy on HMS Hecla, and a further 2 years on foreign service including China & Japan. On leaving the service he became a fireman of the London Fire Brigade Bourne served at Cannon Street, Sydenham & Clapham, before moving to Poplar workhouse where he worked for about 3 years before being called up for World War 1. During WW1 he served with the Royal Naval Reserve onboard HMS Aboukir. Sadly Bourne did not…
Captain Gilbert W Murlis Green
Captain Gilbert Ware Murlis Green Highly decorated Officer Captain Gilbert W. Murlis Green was the son of Mr & Mrs J. W. Murlis Green, born in London on the 24th January 1895. His family were from Beckenham. Gilbert joined the army in 1914 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps the following year. He was a Royal Air Force career officer credited with eight aerial victories and was highly decorated for this. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Serbian Order of Karageorge for duties effectively accomplished and for…
William Bernard Bingham
William Bernard Bingham Killed whilst on service William Bernard Bingham was born at West Stoke and was the son of John and Alice Bingham. William was married to Charlotte Jean Bingham, of 2, St. Mary’s Cottage, Hayes, Kent, and was formerly chauffeur to Lady Laidlow of Warren House, Hayes for 8 years, before enlisting as a 2nd-class Air Mechanic with the Royal Air Corps., in April 1916. Sadly he was killed in an accident while serving. On the 5th July 1916, William was working on a stationary Mechanical Transport when…
Second-Lieu F. G. W. Marchant
Second Lieutenant Francis George Wake Merchant Killed in Action Second Lieutenant Francis George Wake Marchant served with the 3rd Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps and was the only son of Frank and Torfrida Marchant, of Woodside, Keston (Hayes), Kent. Born in London on the 4th March 1897, he was educated at Ludgrove and Eton. Having proceeded to Sandhurst in May, 1915, Francis obtained a commission in the Royal West Kent Regiment on 19th October, 1915 and immediately volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps. After 5 months training went overseas…
Staff-Sergeant J.W. Filby
Staff-Sergeant J.W. Filby News has been received that Staff-Sergeant J. W. Filby, eldest son of Mr and Mrs J. Filby, 11 Turpington Lane, Bromley Common is among the missing in Singapore. A native of Bromley, he was educated at the Church School, Bromley Common, afterwards going to the Beckenham Trade School. He joined the East Surrey Regiment in April, 1933, and went to the Far East in 1938, going first to Singapore and then to Shanghai with the British troops, he returned to Singapore, and later went to Malaya. The…
Women to Help Home guard
Women to Help Home Guard Casualty Service Training More volunteers wanted in Bromley Arrangements have now been completed for the training of women to assist with the Casualty Services of the Home Guard in the Bromley area. It is not intended that these women shall go out to attend to casualties in the fighting positions, but that they shall staff shelter points in selected houses to which casualties will be brought to await removal by ambulance to hospital. As, under invasion conditions there may be delays in procuring evacuation by…
Basham Brothers Missing, 1942
Basham Brothers Missing in Action It must have been bad enough having one son go missing in action, but it must have been almost unbearable having two. This article featured in the Bromley & District Times local newspaper, reporting on two brothers who were reported missing after the fall of Singapore in 1942. The brothers were the sons of Benjamin and Rose Basham of Bromley. Bennett Thomas Basham was married to Constance Elsie (of Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk) who was living with his mother during the war. Both brothers were members…
Cross Country Run, 1942
Air Training Corps take part in Cross Country Run A.T.C. in Hard Test Forty-two members of the Bromley Squadron of the Air Training Corps took part in a cross-country run at Hayes [Bromley] on Sunday morning. It was organised by Flying Officer W.M. Ogden, who is in charge of the sports side. The course was a four-mile one, starting from the top of Station Hill by the fountain, then going across the Common to Croydon Road. along to the Fox at Keston and Leafy Grove then down the hill to…
Mr David Waite in Singapore
Missing in Singapore David Stanley Waite was the son of Harold & Margaret Waite of 22 Woodlands Way, West Wickham. He married Margaret Greenhalgh in Bromley in 1934. After studying at the London University School of Journalism, he worked for several years in Fleet Street, and was for some years on the staff at the Kentish Times. In 1935 David left England for Japan where he joined the Straits Times as a sub-editor. He was then only 25 years old. He wife Margaret, joined him in Singapore and they had…