SERVICE DEATHS
IN AND AROUND DOVER
This is the beginning of a list of service
deaths through enemy action in Dover. It will be revised as we access more sources;
we can't guarantee accuracy as the sources don't necessarily
match in information and even tend to conflict.
If you have further information, please
let us know. Notes from some service records are
here and a preliminary list of injuries to
service personnel is here.
The preliminary list was based on Roy
Humphreys' book, "Dover at War, 1939-1945". Information in italics is from "Front Line
County" by Andrew Rootes. The entries marked with
an 1 are from "Conflict Across the Strait" by Colonel B
E Arnold TD 1982. Entries marked with an * are from
Dover Express summaries published between 3 June 1949 to
20 January 1950. Entries marked with a 2 are from
information compiled by Phil Eyden from St Mary in
Castro burial records, and those with a 3 from research
by Mark Chapman.
See also the
different
list from the Diary of Events, Dover Municipal
Borough
1939
Date |
Name |
Location |
Notes |
early November |
one |
Pier Turret Battery |
swept over Admiralty pier, drowned
1 |
1940
Date |
Name |
Location |
Notes |
27 May |
L/Aircrtmn Reginald Brown |
Shakespeare Cliff |
crashed after returning from bombing |
31 May |
Sapper Thomas Speers, 26 |
Dover Harbour |
found dead in the harbour on 18 June 2 |
7 July |
Sqn Ldr John Davies Clement Joslin |
Chilverton Elms |
shot down by Mes (or by Spitfire?) |
8 July |
F/O E W Mitchell |
Temple Ewell |
shot down in flames |
15 July |
one |
Langdon Battery |
huts bombed 1 |
19 July |
Flt Lt I D G Donald |
Elms Vale |
attacked by Mes over channel, afire, reached
Dover, crashed |
P/O A C Hamilton |
Elms Vale |
25 July |
Henry Sand |
on shore |
of Merchant Navy |
29 July |
Pte Charles Hanvy |
Dover Harbour |
dive-bombing |
30 July |
L/Cpl Sidney Skeratt,
22 |
Union Road Hospital |
injured the previous day with Pte Hanvey
above |
19 August |
fourteen - soldiers from Fifth Field
Training Regiment and the Green Howards and
sailors from Burke and Brock |
|
ten bombs dropped around the castle |
22 August |
Lt-Cdr George Mervyn Allchin *
Lt-Cdr William Stephen Miller * |
Pencester Road near the junction with Maison
Dieu Road |
shelling |
24 August |
F/O Stephen Rochford |
Chevalier Road |
Blenheim crashed into balloon cable |
Sgt William Briggs |
Chevalier Road |
as above |
Sgt Dennis Brook |
Chevalier Road |
as above |
4 September |
Gunner Joseph Pittock* |
|
struck by shrapnel |
9 September |
Pte James Ellis,
20 |
Western Heights |
shell |
11 September |
Lt William Lunn* |
Grand Hotel |
bombing, hotel collapsed |
nine service personnel |
|
bombing and shelling |
Gdsmn Frederick
Haller |
Western Heights |
shell |
Pte Victor Crook |
Dover Marine Station |
shell |
2nd Hand Ivor Batchelor* |
|
shelling and bombing |
L Howarth RAF, 20* |
Granville Gardens |
trapped in basement after shelling, died of wounds |
15 September |
Skipper Andrew Roberston Lees, 35, Seamen
William Roy Cherrington, 19, William Jones, 25,
Ernest Stanton, 37, and Joseph Carter White, 33,
and Stoker Arthur Isitt, 20 |
HMT Botanic, Admiralty |
Dornier bombing |
22 September |
Gnr Cyril Davies, 20, Gnr George Edward Goose,
20, Gnr Dennis Lionel Pearson, 20, Gnr Albert
Joseph Player, 20, and two others |
The Castle |
34th Signal Training Regiment, Royal
Artillery
killed when shell hit anti-tank minefield
being laid 2 |
27 September |
army captain |
Connaught Park |
shell |
Capt E Lawson |
Dover Harbour |
shell |
3 October |
John Arthur/Alfred Hitchen |
the road to Northfall |
transport lorry overturned when returning
from duties |
10 October |
Clr Sgt William John Axtel Day |
|
enemy action 2 |
18 October |
two |
Pier Turret Battery |
shell on Sergeants' Mess
1 |
21 October |
sailor |
Granville Dock |
bomb |
1 November |
Albert Charles
Skeates |
Dover-Deal road |
shell |
14 November |
two |
drifter Shipmates, Camber |
bomb |
20 November |
one - probably Gunner Arthur William Heyhoe,
28, 519 Coast Regt. |
Southern Breakwater Knuckle lighthouse |
heavy waves, drowned
1 body found by soldiers at Romney Marsh, buried Dymchurch |
27 November |
Charles Edward Simpson |
Eastern Arm Battery |
shelling 1 - was manning battery 2 |
20 December |
Victor Park |
|
|
1941
Date |
Name |
Location |
Notes |
3 April |
Canadian soldier |
Shakespeare Beach |
trod on mine |
24 April |
RAF Sergeant |
RAF repairs, near Dover Engineering Works |
bomb |
26 April |
two soldiers |
near Trevanion Caves |
shell |
18 June |
P/O S J Hill |
hit hill by Folkestone Road near Capel |
Spitfire damaged in combat |
30 June |
P/O J N Whitmore, Sgt Dulley, Sgt Truman |
Admiralty Pier |
Blenheim hit barrage balloon cable after
bombing raid. Balloon fell into the ferry dock
and the Blenheim into the sea |
29 July |
Major Becher, 2 Lt Wilson |
beach |
stepped on mine in minefield |
22 August |
Pvt William Holschumer |
|
stepped on mine in minefield |
2 October |
George Bowling, AB RN
four other servicemen including Royal Naval
Master at Arms Sidney Welfare* |
Military Hill |
bomb |
12 October |
aircraftman |
Swingate |
by splinters of shell |
1 November |
a sailor and a soldier |
Boys' County School |
during football game, bomb |
16 November |
one |
Eastern Arm Battery |
heavy gale, high seas, drowned
1 |
15 December |
soldier |
Stanhope Road |
shell |
1942
Date |
Name |
Location |
Notes |
23 March |
Alfred Bowles, The Buffs |
Market Square |
bomb, killed by falling masonry |
26 March |
Lt W G Worthington |
Temple Ewell Road |
shot ten days previously when he failed to
stop his car on challenge by sentry |
3 April |
Surgeon Lt Cdr Robert McDonald Bremner. |
9 Pencester Road |
bomb |
24 July |
Naval Stoker |
near lower end of Snargate Street |
motor gunboat caught fire and blew up
(DE p12 23 Sept 1949) |
5 November |
Flt Sgt S H Spallin |
Admiralty Pier |
struck balloon cable |
9 November |
Daniel Lehane, Bert Fowler, Peter Loudon,
Frederick Kelly, Ronald Goodchild,
Leonard Chillingworth, Norman Ballantyne, John Abbott,
William Hutchison, Ernest Parratt, William
Turner |
Reach Road, St Margaret's |
all of
Royal Artillery, 218 Bty, 73 Lt AA Regt, killed
by shell hitting their trench. |
1943
Date |
Name |
Location |
Notes |
18 January |
gunner from 540 Coast Regt |
Wanstone Farm |
shell |
10 February |
possibly Gunner John Harold Aram, 540 Coast
Regt, Royal Artillery 3 |
Wanstone Farm Battery |
|
17 April |
two soldiers* |
gunsite in Union Road |
shell |
27 June |
one WRN, probably Olive Pett, and eleven
servicemen, probably including Bertram Coker,
Ernest Costin, Frederick Gage, Francis Gardner,
Harold Lynch, Denys Matthews, Sidney Spiller,
Frederick Wood |
Market Square/Cannon Street |
shell |
4 August |
one naval and George Cutteridge, RNVR HMS
Lynx |
Granville Dock |
shell |
1944
Date |
Name |
Location |
Notes |
22 January |
two WAAFs* |
a rural area |
shell. possibly also another, Jean Ramsey,
who died on 30 January |
20 March |
Charles Ireton Ellis, Harold Turner |
Grand Shaft Barracks |
|
13 May |
Edward Thomas Donoghue |
docks by his Air Sea Rescue vessel |
drowned in the docks |
25 June |
three, probably including RAMC Alistair
Lamont and Arthur Mason |
Drill Hall, seafront |
shell |
3 September |
2nd engineer repair ship HMS Moorfowl |
Ferry Dock |
shell |
10 September |
Pvt Robert Niesewonger USA |
former aircraft hanger behind the Castle |
flying shrapnel, airburst shells |
12 September |
one airman, one soldier
Herbert Dovell NFS from Barry attached to the
firefleet in the dockyard * |
|
shelling |
13 September |
one ATS, two servicemen including Arthur
Stanley Fairs from Ipswich |
Priory Station |
shell |
15 September |
nine, AAA 127th, including
Sgt Karl E. Bowman
Sgt James H. Myers,
Pvt Max Long |
by Castle |
airburst shell |
23 September |
one military and Harry Hall, Gnr |
Salvation Army Hostel, Snargate Street |
Harry Hall buried St James, armour piercing
shell |
26 September |
one soldier, probably Thomas Edgar Cook |
Broadlees, army bungalow |
shell |
Flt Lt Soden |
Frith Road |
returning from medical incidents, shell |
two naval people |
Mitre pub, Snargate Street |
shell |
14 October |
John William Henry
Perkins |
Casualty Hospital |
wounded by shrapnel |
Notes from some service records are
here and a preliminary list of injuries to
service personnel is here. 3 June 1949, 15 July
1949, 21 October 1949, 5 August 1949, |