An Airman’s Life in India Written by Pam Preedy. A Land of Jackals, Snakes and Mosquitoes Some of the “Life” which our boys are seeing on active service is described in a letter which A/C1 Gilbert Attwood has written from a wireless unit in India to his mother in Lincoln Road, Sidcup. He says:- “I am very well and have just returned from a five day trip to a location right out in the jungle, where I carried out practice out practice duties under surroundings which will in future be,…
Category: WW2
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…
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…
Night’s Heavy Blitz – April 1941
Night’s Heavy Blitz – April 1941 This report describes the aftermath of a heavy night of bombing on the town of Bromley in Kent on 16th April 1941. Due to government censorship of newspapers at the time, no exact location is given, other than a South-East residential location, but we now know this location to be Bromley, St Peter’s and St Pauls’ as the parish church which was destroyed, and the furniture depository being Dunn’s of Bromley which was located on Market Square. Heavy Bombs and Incendiaries in a residential…
Prisoners of Singapore (WW2)
Singapore Prisoners of War During World War II, following the Fall of Singapore in February 1942, the Japanese military held some 50,000 Allied Soldiers, predominantly British and Australian in a Prisoner of War camp in the Changi area. During the first few months there was little news, then came the reports of the missing. Finally, after months came reports of men being held as prisoners of war. Personally I found it very upsetting. The first reports came sometimes over a radio broadcast or in the form of a postcard. In…
Arthur James Smith
Presumed Killed Lieutenant A.J. Smith In June 1940, Mrs Smith, 58 Freeland Road, Bromley, received news that her husband, Lieutenant A.J. Smith, The Buffs, was missing, believed killed. He was serving in France in May of that year, and when last seen was wounded. A communication has now been received by Mrs Smith stating that her husband is presumed to have been killed in action in May 1940. Lieutenant Smith, the son of Mr. W. Smith, 28 north Road, Bromley, served in the last warm and was wounded. In 9123…
Stephen J. Masters
Missing Lieutenant S.J. Masters, Chislehurst Mr and Mrs C. Masters, of Ridgemount, Leesons, Chislehurst, have been informed by the War Office that their son, Lieutenant Stephen J. Masters, The Suffolk Regiment, was serving in Malaya up to the date when Singapore capitulated, and is posted as missing until some definite information is received. It is hoped that he may be a prisoner of war. Lieutenant Masters was educated at Eltham College, where he was a good all-round sportsman. On leaving school he joined the Royal Exchange Assurance. He enlisted in…
Bert Whitehead
Prisoner of War Private Bert Whitehead Private Bert Whitehead, son of Mr and Mrs J. Whitehead, 13 Holbrook Way, Bromley, is a prisoner of war in Germany at Stalag XXB 34. He is 23 years of age, and has had three birthdays away from home. His parents hear from him regularly, and he appears to be well and cheerful. Born in Bromley, Private Whitehead was educated at Bromley Common (Holy Trinity) School, when Mr E.C. De’Ath (now a member of the Town Council) was head master, and afterwards at Raglan…