Sladden, H
Henry (Harry) Richard Sladden, aged 43, was a casual  labourer and may have acted as barman at the Red Lion in St James Street. He had lived at the Red Lion for some eight or nine years; the pub also was a lodging house. He was said to have been a very nice man, steady, and with a wonderful memory.

He had been sleeping in a first floor room on the night of 22nd/23rd January 1916. At 12.47 on the Sunday morning a bomb fell on the roof, perhaps some nine feet away, and burst. The roof was blown off, and debris and a joist fell into the room. The chimney breast was riddled, and there was a strong smell of gas when the assistant manager entered.  Harry Sladden was on the bed by the wall, beneath the window, covered with debris. His body was still warm, but he was probably already dead, and certainly was so by the time the doctor arrived.

The doctor stated that Harry had compound fractures of both bones of his right leg, below the knee, and that these were probably caused by shrapnel wounds.  The fatal injury was a severe lacerated wound of the wall of the stomach, through which intestines were protruding. It was a clean cut and, as there was no burning, as would have been expected had it been a shrapnel wound, it may have been caused by a falling slate. The clothes had been blown away.

At the inquest there was a short discussion as to whether a verdict of murder could be returned. The Coroner,  however, stated that this would be of no avail, that they were at war, and that Harry had been killed by a bomb thrown from a hostile aircraft. 

Harry Sladden was buried at St James cemetery on Thursday afternoon, 27th January 1916, M J 5. Large crowds were in the streets to see the cortege pass, and Alderman J W Bussey, his employer, was amongst the mourners. Floral tributes included those from "Two old friends, Mr White and Mr Madden", "J. Skinner and family and fellow lodgers", "four old workmates", "from his mates".

There had been three others in the room, who escaped with injuries. One of them, aged aged 67, remembered hearing a bomb, but knew nothing till half past six the following morning. A bed between him and Harry Sladden had been thrown on top of him, and "Dick" had removed it. He had been so stunned he had gone downstairs with no clothes on, but he remembered neither that nor being seen by a doctor. Nor did he recall having gone up and downstairs two or three times after the explosion. His head had been affected and he was still dizzy by the Tuesday after the bomb fell.

Post Script: The assistant manager, giving evidence at the inquest, rather wryly noted that the proprietor of the Red Lion was an invalid, but that when the bomb fell the proprietor, getting out of the property, displayed greater energy than the assistant manager had known him have for two and a half years. 

illustrations: The site of the Red Lion - opposite the Lord Nelson, and now a redundant multi-storey car park
site of Harry Sladden's grave, with thanks to Joyce Banks

Smith, M. R.
Minnie Rhoda Smith, aged 40, was fatally injured when a bomb smashed the backs of numbers 4 and 6 Widred Road on 4th September 1917. She died on 11th October. Her father, Mr Edward Little, was also killed.

Stoker, E. M.
Edith Stoker was killed on 19th March 1916. She was a housemaid, in the service of Mrs P Hart, from Maison Dieu Road. On her afternoon off she was cycling to Folkestone, probably to see her sweetheart. 

An exploding bomb, which hit the tram track in Folkestone Road by St John's Terrace, threw her from her bike and drove her through the door of Mr Tarrant's stationer's shop on the other side of Folkestone Road, at number 131. She was discovered lying in the entrance, and was taken to hospital in a car with Francis Hall, another casualty, where she died from her dreadful injuries.

She was 23, and the daughter of a Sergeant Major pensioner from the Royal Garrison Artillery. Her parents lived at 18 Church Road.

The footstone of her grave at St James reads:

Wall, L.
Lucy Wall was a servant girl at the Admiral Harvey public house. She was killed on 22nd August 1917 during the last of the daylight Gotha air raids, when some seven or eight of the craft in formation flew over the town. Most of their bombs fell into the harbour, but three or four bombs were dropped on Dover by one plane that flew directly over the town. The largest bomb, it is said, fell at the back of the Admiral Harvey, where it did a great deal of damage. The only occupant at the time was Lucy, and she was found at the back of the house very badly injured. She died on the way to hospital.

At the inquest her father, Stephen William Wall, of 27 Union Road, formerly an agricultural worker at Guston, where Lucy had been born, said he had identified the body. Mrs Jane Sutton, who was a widow living at 20 Paul's Place, said "I was standing on a table in the back bedroom looking at the German aeroplanes. I saw the deceased standing at the back door, and she shouted, "Are they Germans?" and I replied, "Oh yes!". She came outside the door a little bit further to watch them. I said, "You had better go further back inside," as the guns were getting louder and louder. At that moment something came down and blew me off the table on to the bed, and I lost myself for ten minutes. When I woke up I was covered with glass. The flame was something dreadful. The bomb burst ten yards away from me. I was only bruised and scratched a bit. Afterwards I saw them taking the poor girl away on a stretcher."

Mr E W Ewell was a special constable and a chemist, and he said, "When the firing commenced I was in High Street, and after the bomb dropped I saw the smoke and ran in its direction. I could not see where the bomb dropped, and enquired at several houses, and then had to take refuge owing to the shrapnel dropping. I was afterwards told that the girl was in this public house alone. I climbed over the wall, and searched the house, and found the body lying partly in and partly out of the back door. She was not dead but unconscious. She however died before we put her on the stretcher. I sent her on to the Hospital then. There was a bad wound under the left breast, and other smaller ones. She was 30 feet away from where the bomb burst, and all around her on the wall were marks where fragments had hit. At the Hospital Dr Clarke said that she was dead."

Mr Rogers, the landlord, said that the girl was by herself in the house, his wife having gone to London. The only living thing in the house was a dog that had a piece of bomb in its paw, and he took that out the previous night.      

Lucy was buried at Guston churchyard, with the cortege leaving from the Duke of York's School lodge house, which was the home of her sister. 

Post Script: A pear tree at the rear of the Admiral Harvey was blasted by the bomb; its leaves withered and the pears fell off. But by October it was budding again and even in bloom. An observer remarked, "the tree didn't mean to be beaten by the Hun!" 

Note: Mr and Mrs Rogers were later to lose their only son, Charles, in World War II, and the following licensees, Mr and Mrs Harper, taking over in 1941 after the death of Mr Rogers, also lost their only son, Cyril. 

Wood, D. E.
Dorothy Eleanor Wood was attending Miss Pilcher's shorthand and typewriting class, on the ground floor of the house of Mr Smith at 10 Folkestone Road. She lived at 9 Alfred Road, and had just begun duties as a typist at the Town Clerk's office.

On 24th September 1917 the siren sounded for an air raid warning. The ladies put up the wooden shutters inside the windows to prevent the glass injuring them, should there be a near hit from a bomb. They then continued with their lesson.

Nine minutes after the class had begun, the second bomb to fall, according to the Chief Constable, exploded in the garden,  some four to six yards from the window, and damaged the front of the house. One young lady had a lucky escape as she had not arrived at the class when the warning siren had begun, and had instead run home, but in the class several of the ladies were wounded, three seriously. Miss Wood was found just inside the front window, and was badly injured in both her upper arms and one of her legs. A piece of the bomb had also injured her spine.

Her father had been informed she was hurt, and believed her injuries serious. She was taken to hospital while heavy bombing was continuing. However, Miss Wood had told the hospital they need not "bother, as she was not hurt much". Sadly, she deteriorated, and died at four o' clock in the morning of Tuesday, 2nd October.

Miss Wood was 17½ years old. She is buried at Buckland, 2061

with thanks to Joyce Banks

image above right::
the houses no longer exist, and the site is a garage. More about the chapel next door in Folkestone Road may be seen here