For Gallantry: British Empire Medal Mr V.G.T. Rickman His Majesty the King has been graciously please to award the British Empire Medal to Mr Victor George Thomas Rickman, 39 Brooklyn Road, Bromley, in recognition of his gallant conduct and good service on the occasion of the enemy attack on London last April. During the __ a high explosive bomb wrecked a shelter and three embers of the Southern Railway staff were killed and four badly injured. Mr Rickman is a clerk at Blackfriars good station. With him on the night…
Tag: Bromley
Bromley’s Christmas Games – 1941
Holiday Football Home Guard Overwhelmed On Christmas Day Bromley met the local Home Guard in a friendly match at Hayes Lane, Bromley. The match resulted in an overwhelming victory for Bromley 15-1. McMillan scored no fewer than five times, and the match caused much entertainment to the spectators. Several Bromley players were claimed by the Home Guard, and Bromley selected four R.A.F. players for inclusion in their forward line. Bromley – Gunner, Stone, Allinson, Marshall, Holder, Tasker, Gardner, Osman, Fowler Champion, McMillan. Home Guard: Tanner, Reeves, Clark, Smedley Wade, Smith,…
William Page & Margaret Holder: Wedding
The perfect romance It seems this was the perfect romance. In the 1939 Register, William Page, then living at 17 Cloisters Avenue, Bromley was listed as a Butcher’s Assistant, along with his younger brother David. Margaret, on the other hand, who was living with her parents on Southlands Road, was noted as being a cashier in a Butchery department. No details of the company they worked for are given, but it could very well have been the same place, and so was how they met. The couple went on to…
Flying Officer Albert Cyril Batt
Gallant Conduct Flying Officer A.C. Batt, R.AF.V.R., Commended The gallant conduct of Flying Officer Albert Cyril Batt, R.A.F.A.R., on the night of April 16, when the Odeon Cinema, Bromley was damaged by enemy action has been recognised by his Majesty the King. The calm manner in which he handled the situation and prevented fires from surrounding buildings spreading to the cinema set at fine example to those around him. Mr Herbert Morrison felt that his resource and initiative were deserving of high praise, and the King has been graciously pleased…
Bromley’s Drive to Salvage Waste, 1941
During the Second World War recycling was at a high in Britain. Though at the time it was not for environmental reasons – far from it. During the war Britain feared a Nazi blockade would leave the country with a paper shortage, so the wartime Government made recycling paper compulsory in 1940 as part of its National Salvage Campaign. Three days after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Ministry of Supply sent a memo to every council in the country demanding an “intensification of salvage work and fullest co-operation…
Amazing Ordeal of Two Local Airmen
Blazing Bomber 12,000 Feet up Fought fire over Germany for three hours THEN 57 HOURS ON SEA WASHED ASHORE IN RUBBER DINGHY A gallant young wireless operator whose home is at Bickley, Sergeant John Barry Holdsworth, third son of Mr and Mrs GK. Holdsworth, of Wellsfield, Denbridge Road, was one of the crew of the Wellington Bomber who were washed up in their rubber dinghy on the Isle of Wight at Ventnor after a heavy raid on the German capital a fortnight ago. Another gallant member of the crew was…
History made on ruins of Bromley Parish Church – 1941
Bromley Parish Church has played a significant role in the life of Bromley for over 800 years. The church was destroyed by a bomb on the night of 16 April 1941. Doubly unique Institution and Induction Ceremony on ruins of Parish Church. Impressive procession of Clergy and Laity. Task ahead: Rebuilding the Church. For the first time in the history of the Church of England a Vicar has been instituted in a Methodist building and inducted on the ruins of his Parish Church. Source: Bromley & District Times, 14th November…
Kent men in Iceland appeal for more games
Kent Men in Iceland Games of all kinds needed Appeal by the W.V.S. Bromleian’s impressios of the island There are a fair number of Bromley men among the British troops in Iceland. In this island of the North Atlantic ocean, the extreme northerly point of which is touched by the Artic Circle, the summers are short and the winters long, and what the men need especially are games of all kinds. Source: Bromley & District Times, November 1941
Is Your Boy here? Prisoners of War, 1941
This group photo of soldiers being held in a prisoner of war camp in Germany in 1941, was published in the Bromley & District Times in the October, in the hope that some readers might recognise the men featured. It does featured one Lance-Corporal Eric Arthur Eagles, of the Royal West Kent Regiment who resided at 70 Cumberland Road, Bromley, who had been reported as a prisoner of war in Germany. In the photo Lance-Corporal Eagles is standing at the back on the extreme left. Source: Bromley & District Times, 31st…
Royal West Kent Regiment: Prisoners of War
In a German Prison Camp A group of officers of the Royal West Kent Regiment at Camp Oflag VII., C,. Germany, received by Mrs Haynes, mother of Captain P.F. Haynes. They are (left to right) back row: ____, Captain H.J. Langdon, Captain R.E Moss, ____, Second-Lieutenant R.G. Bensted, Captain T.T.W. Stanyon, Second-Lieut. Lee. Front row: Captain P.F. Haynes, Captain D.H. Andrews, Lieut.-Colonel E.A. Sharpin, Lieut-Colonol William Nash, Lieut.-Colonel R.L. Clay, Major I. Pilditch, Captain C.B. Selby-Noothroyd. Source: Bromley & District Times, 10th October 1941 (page 6)