Remember the Civilians 1940-1945

Hi All,

I would like to bounce an idea of a project that I am considering to expand to a wider audience depending on any comments received from the few of us.

The subject is Hull’s civilian casualties in the Second World War. We remember every year the soldiers, sailors and airman etc who died for their country. We remember the survivors who took part in many war service occupations “doing their bit”. It should be remembered, that over 1,200 people in Hull lost their lives in these bombing raids.

I seems to me that in Hull we have a great opportunity to remember in a special way the fatal casualties caused by the bombing raids.

All the names of civilian casualties are remembered in The Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour compiled by the Imperial War Graves Commission, now known as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It lists civilians killed directly or indirectly by enemy action in the United Kingdom during the 1939 to 1945 war. A copy of the complete roll, consisting of seven bound volumes listing 66375 names, is kept in Westminster Abbey, and the information is included in the Commission's online Debt of Honour Register.

The listing in the North East and therefore in Hull can be found in Genuki/NE_War Dead compiled by Brian Pears.
The North East Diary 1939-1945 compiled by Roy Ripley and Brian Pears gives a day by day account of the conflict.
Taking just these two accounts for Hull together with the Bomb Map of Hull, an excellent piece of work, “The Hull Blitz, A Bombing Map” compiled by Robert Haywood and other viewings of Hull streets gave me an idea.

What about a plaque or something similar, to place at the each bomb site or close to it. This would be naming and commemorating those who died.

The first six deaths in a bombing raid on Hull took place on 25 August 1940 down Rustenburg Street and Carlton Street.

On the night of 17 March 1945 12 people died this having the distinction of being the VERY LAST Civilian casualties by a piloted aircraft. It was the morning of the 27th March 1945 in Orpington, when the very last V2 landed on England, only one person was killed, and just two months later, the war was over.

It will be coming up to 70 years anniversary of the big raids on Hull in 1941 and we have some little time to prepare for this. Many of the bomb sites are still visible some not so.
My thoughts are to involve the local inhabitants of that particular street whether business or residential together with any school participation in the area to commemorate in some way on the anniversary of the raid.

Am I too ambitious or just looney?

I like your thinking. Might I suggest Victoria Square as our prime site.

Thanks Tony,

Birmingham BARRA (look it up) got a mention on TV today. Birmingham have a remembrance monument in the Bull Ring and they started in 2000. Birmingham and London have Blitz walks, Hull still has the chance as some of the bomb sites are still there.
I hope I can get the interest in Hull for something similar. Hull History Centre looks like the coordinator for such a project, we will see. The very last bombing casualties of the war were in Hull and we cannot remember this!

I think this idea would be well supported.I remember the stories my mother used to tell of the bombing in Hull she lived in the Clifton Street, Northumberland Ave area during the war.The thing is now these stories are going to the grave (for want of a better saying) with the brave people who had no other choice than to sit it out on the Home Front during the war years.May be its time we had a national day of remembrance for those who were killed at home?.

Great idea. Hull History Centre has a lot of information on old war memorials around Hull that have since vanished, they have collections on microfilm, and many have old photographs of the graves and plaques that were situated on streets. I recal seeing one about Severn-street, where we live, and the plaque was on the side of Lucky Star but has since vanished. It would be fascinating to honour those civilians.

I have a reply form Councillor Adam Williams.

"You're quite right, something should be done to commemorate this. Please let me know if you recieve a response from Martin Taylor. (Hull History Centre).

There is already a plaque on the side of Boyes - on the corner of Holderness Road and Morrill Street, that commemorates the last bombs to fall on the UK, but it doesn't (from memory) list the names of those who were killed."

I can see the plaque on google but cannot read what it says.

If I have time tomorrow I will nip and take a picture. As far as I am aware the plaque was put up for the families who came out of the old Savoy theatre and were killed on Holderness road by a lost German fighter.

If you look through the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour for Northumberland,Durham and Yorkshire it gives a comprehensive list of when and where the casualties were inflicted.It also shows that many of the casualties were in shelters that must have been bombed by a direct hit. I think some time ago someone was trying to get the old National Cinema on Beverley Road turned into some sort of monument to the civilians.

All,

I have found a few more snippets about the Hull civilian casualties on the net.

Also a bit more about the Tivoli Cinema. I use to walk past this every week in the fifties.
From “This is Hull & East Riding” there is a tribute to victims of the Blitz Tuesday, March 18, 2008.

A project which records people's memories of the World War Two blitz has started in Hull.
Run by the city council's library service, it aims to record people's first-hand accounts of the aerial bombings. This was BBC Humberside 15/10/09.

I have had an answer from Martin Taylor which is self explanatory. So something is being done.

His email reads;

“Thank you for your email.

I have made some enquiries and I understand that consideration of how to commemorate the 70thanniversary of the height of the bombing of Hull – the May Blitz – is being given across various services in the City Council. This is likely to be co-ordinated centrally. For its part, the History Centre holds a huge range of material relating to Hull during the Second World War, and I anticipate that some of this may form the basis of a display either at the Centre or elsewhere in the City.

The History Centre holds a copy of the Civilian War Dead for Hull and this is available for consultation.

You may already be aware that there is a Civilian War Dead memorial in the Northern Cemetery where a service of remembrance is held each May. There is also of course a plaque to all the civilian dead on the site of the Prudential Building in Queen Victoria Square where 16 people were killed in one of the most famous, not to say mythologized, incidents of the May Blitz. I am sure that appropriate consideration will be given to other means of commemorating the victims of bombing in the 70th anniversary year.

I hope this reassures you.”

Martin Taylor
City Archivist
Hull History Centre
Worship Street
Hull
HU2 8BG

(01482) 317501 Martin.Taylor@hullcc.gov.uk

Now I must get to Hull and go to the History Centre to get my family history sorted. I need photos of the streets where they all lived, most, but not all, now gone.