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World War I
CIVILIANS Surnames
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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 |
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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.
Her
husband, George Smith, and her sons, George and
Harold Smith, were amongst the mourners when she was
buried, and her
coffin was borne by fellow employees (from the
Co-operative Society?) of her husband.
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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:
Sacred to the
memory
of Edith Mary Second
daughter of George W. and
Annie L. Stoker Who died from
enemy action. 19th March 1916.
Aged 23.

opposite: Folkestone Road, looking
towards Folkestone. The car is parked outside the
shop where Miss Stoker was blown from her bike. It
is still a newsagent's today. Little Francis Hall
was also killed in this area on the same date.
Note: One report gives her name as Miss Alice Stokes
photo of grave and transcription with thanks to Joyce Banks |
W
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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
i n 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. |
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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 |
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