In order to keep civilians safe during the Second World War, the Government set up an operation to protect people, especially children, by evacuating them away from the towns and cities which were of high risk from aerial bombing and moving them to areas thought to be less at risk. Operation Pied Piper, began on 1 September 1939, and officially relocated more than 3.5 million people. There were further waves of official evacuation and re-evacuation from the south and east coasts in June 1940, when a seaborne invasion was expected,…
Tag: WW2
“Gay Defiance” of Staff and Pupils during WW2
How words change their meanings! This report tells how the education department were trying to minimise the threat of bomb damage: only allowing limited numbers of people on the school premises at one time (part-time schooling), and arrangements for repairs made in advance. It had all worked well. Staff and pupils carrying on as normally as possible in defiance of German aggression. Lessons would have continued in school air-raid shelters or even sheltering under desks! Kent Education Committee “Gay Defiance” of Staff and Pupils Use of School Shelters by the public Lord Northbourne presided…
Rationing Recipes – Cakes without Eggs
Rationing on food items such as eggs during World War II meant that a little imagination was needed in the kitchen when it came to producing sweet treats for the family. During the war years, the Bromley & District Times was on hand to help home bakers with ideas to satisfy their sweet tooth. Cakes without Eggs Even the present egg shortage need not prevent the housewife from making her own cakes. Here are some suggestions for afternoon tea: – Chocolate Cake 1 half size tin sweetened full-cream condensed milk…
London Carries on – Spirit of the People
This news report featured in the Bromley & District Times in mid-October 1940 and gives an insight into how life carried on as normal for the residents of London during the Blitz of 1940. LONDON CARRIES ON 35-MILE TOUR AFTER THE BLITZKRIEG THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE The early morning train was crowded, and subsequent stops, and we were soon speeding along side by side with other trains, equally crowded with men and women, boys and girls, all headed for London. Surely not for London after the Blitzkrieg visitations…
Man Survives Air Raid which Destroyed his House
When a bomb demolished a house in a suburb on Saturday afternoon, the owner was inside. To the amazement of the A.R.P. workers who were at once on the spot, the man crawled from the wreckage suffering only from cuts and shock. Here he is being taken to a nearby first-aid post. Press Censorship during World War Two Newspapers rarely gave details of the exact location of successful bombing raids, so we may never know where this incident happened, nor who the lucky survivor was. When war broke out…
How OXO helped Strengthen the Home Front
How OXO helped Strengthen the Home Front In 1840 a German chemist, by the name of Baron Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), invented meat extract through his Extract of Meat Company, and shortly after Oxo was created. The formula was so popular that by 1908 Oxo was able to become an official sponsor of the London Olympics and supplied fortified drinks of Oxo to marathon runners. By 1910 the makers had formulated the iconic OXO ‘cube’, making it more accessible to families around the world, and further increased Oxo’s popularity. During the…
Private Albert Boxall
Prisoner of War Mr and Mrs A. Boxall, of 38 Holbrook Way, Bromley, have received recent news from their son, Albert Boxall, who had been a prisoner of war in Germany since May 1940, when he was captured on the Arras front. He was in the Territorial Army before the war, and was called up at the outbreak and stationed in France. When he was taken prisoner he was only 19. He attended Raglan Road School and was later employed as a gardener. His main hobby was golf, at which…
Farm Wiped Out
Bomb Havoc Over a Mile It took a German bomb a matter of seconds to wipe out an ancient farm in a South-East urban district and spread damage among other buildings for over a mile on Thursday evening last week. Farm buildings, which had stood on this spot for years, and which were among the last remaining traces of the once rural character of this rapidly developed and modernised district, crumpled under the blast of a terrific explosion and in an incredibly short space of time became a desolate heap…
Pilot Officer R.A. Marchand
The funeral of Pilot Officer Roy Achille Marchand, who was killed in action on September 15th, aged 22, took place at St Mark’s Church, Bromley and afterwards at Bromley Hill Cemetery. He was the only son of Mr And Mrs Rene A, Marchand, of 6 Hayes Road, Bromley, and his death was recorded in our issue last week. The mourners were Mr and Mrs Rene Marchand, Mrs Jean Marchand, Mrs O. Cullen and Mr and Mrs E. Dean. The flowers included a wreath (R.A.F.) from his father, a large heart…
Father And Daughter Killed
Mother had gone to Hospital Seven Bombs on S.E. Area Wife Killed: Husband and son injured Tragedy came to two houses in a South-East residential area on Tuesday morning when an enemy plane came from behind a dark cloud and dropped seven bombs. Several dropped at a road junction and in a garden, making wide craters, and three on or near houses in three different roads. A father and his daughter were killed and another daughter gravely injured. In another house a women was killed, but her husband injured and…