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World War I
CIVILIANS Surnames
N to Z
R
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Robus
G. F.
George Frederick Robus (left) of 2 Chapel
Cottages Eythorne died in the great munitions explosion at Faversham on
2 April 1916. He was 35. He was buried in the mass grave at Faversham;
his name is on the wall to the right of the steps, where lies his
coffin..
He left a wife and three children and
was
the son of the late Mr F Robus and Mrs Robus of 24 Westbury Road, Dover
Ernest Legg and Sidney
Holbourn were other victims of the tragedy

George's
brother E Robus (right) was a gunner in the Royal
Garrison Artillery. He was wounded on 22 July 1917 and
convalesced in Oust Gew Hospital Rouen. Before he
enlisted he was employed for five years by Mr Pexton of
Snargate Street. He was the youngest son of the family |
S
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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
22/23 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, 27 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 4 September 1917. She died on
11th October at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Her father Mr
Edward Little was also
killed
Her
husband George Smith a carman and her sons George and
Harold Smith, along with her sisters Mrs Johncok,
Ledner, and Filmer, and sister-in-law Mrs Aldhouse were amongst the mourners when she was
buried on 17 October at Charlton, 2 C6. The first
part of the funeral service took place at the
church and her
coffin was borne to the grave by fellow employees (from the
Co-operative Society?) of her husband: Messrs
Potter, Evans, May, and Culmer
Floral tributes included those "From her loving
husband and children", and "Employees of the
Co-operative Society"
with thanks to Joyce Banks
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Stoker, E. M.
Edith Stoker was
killed on 19 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 19
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 (2009) 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 |
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Stokes, F. C.
Frederick Charles Stokes
was a telegrapher, and brother to William, below. Born
in Dover in 1876, he was injured in the raid on
Folkestone on 25 May 1917, and never fully recovered. He
died on 11 October 1918 from phthisis and pulmonary
haemorrhage. He left his second wife and six children. |
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Stokes, W. H.
William Henry Stokes was
one of two Stokes brothers who ran the greengrocers'
shop in Tontine Street in Folkestone which shop now
destroyed right was the
focus of the Gotha Raid devastation on 25 May 1917
He
was born in Dover around 1871 and married in 1895. His
son Arthur was also killed
Right, the spot
where the bomb fell
They are buried at Cheriton
cemetery, Folkestone, 3653 (u) The words on the
headstone (in the centre) read:

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In Ever Loving Memory of my dear husband William Henry Stokes
who died 25 May 1917 aged 46 years |
also of my son
Arthur Ernest Stokes who died 28 May 1917 aged 15 years (Victims of the air raid)
In the midst of life we are in death |
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also of Jane widow of the above W. H. Stokes who died 23 October 1953 aged 90 years Reunited
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W
Ward, R. H.
Robert Henry Ward, Boy Scout -
see here |
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Wall, L.
Lucy
Wall was a
servant girl at the Admiral Harvey public house. She was killed on 22
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
three months later Mr Rogers was also
killed. The following licensees Mr and Mrs Harper 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 24 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 fell, according to the
Chief Constable it 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 2 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
Right:: the Wesleyan Chapel next door
to Miss Pilcher's class was struck by the previous bomb. The
rear wall was demolished and the roof slid off the sides

Left: the open roof - the chairs are still neatly in their blocked rows
inside the damaged chapel .More about this chapel may be seen
here |
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