THE  DOVER WAR MEMORIAL  PROJECT

The "We Remember" Booklet 2006

DOVER FIRST AND LAST - QUESTION                                                

During the Great War the first bomb that landed in Britain fell on Dover. It was dropped by German airman Rempler on 24^th December 1914. The plaque on the left is located at Taswell Street. 

The last moonlight raid on Dover was on 19^th May 1918, with the last bomb in the area falling on Swingate Down on 20 May. The last time Dover guns fired upon enemy aircraft was 20^th July 1918.   

In World War II the first shell in Dover fell on 12^th August 1940. The first  bombs had fallen just over a month before. The last bombs fell on 22 January 1944. The beach had been re-opened to the public on 19 January 1945 but the warning siren wasn't finally silenced until March 1945. The last missile near Dover was a V2 which exploded in the sea five miles off Shakespeare Cliff on 19 January 1945.

On 30 September 1944 the Mayor announced that the last shell against Dover had been fired. The plaque on the right commemorates the date and the place where the last shell landed in Kent. But where in Dover is the plaque? (Answer here)

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September 2007

Taswell Street was named after a Captain Taswell, who had owned the land before it was sold in the 1880s to William Crundall, twelve times Mayor of Dover. A correspondent suggested that Captain Taswell may have been Edward Taswell, son of George Morris Taswell, JP of Canterbury, who had been born in 1826 in Canterbury, and who died in 1889 at Worthing, Sussex.

As Lieutenant, Edward Taswell served in the Crimean Campaign between September and November 1854, including the siege of Sebastopol. He was awarded a Medal with Clasp, and a Turkish medal. In 1861 Captain Taswell was noted in the Dover Castle Fortress, serving in 273 Regiment of the Royal Artillery. He had been made Captain on 17th February 1854, after becoming Second Lieutenant on 18th June 1845 and Lieutenant on 1st April 1846. He later went on to become Major on 8th March 1867, Lieutenant Colonel on 23rd April 1868, and Colonel on 3rd September 1870. He was also a cricketer.

with thanks to Lyndon Taswell