the online A-Z of Southampton's history.
Melbourne Street, Northam, with the Gas Works behind.
Melbourne Street, Northam, with the Gas Works behind.×
On 26 September 1940, thirteen people died in Melbourne Street.
At no. 22:
Frances Martha Emily White, widow, 74.
At no. 23:
Doris May Dunford, 35
and her son Michael Dunford, 4
Doris's parents lived next door, at
No. 24:
William Pothecary, 58
Elizabeth Anne Pothecary, 57
At no. 25:
Beatrice Victoria Bundy, shopkeeper, 66
and at no. 43
Alice May Parker
and her five children
Reginald James, 9
Barbara Elizabeth, 7
Brian Daniels, 5
Patricia June, 2
Joan, 9 months
also killed here was
Louisa Ethel Frances Hooker, 21.
Six men died at the Gas Works that afternoon, and four more were to die of their injuries in the following days.
EIGHTY YEARS AGO
Remembering the Southampton victims day by day
For earlier casualties, see Air Raids, World War 2
24 September 1940
Walter Kingston recorded "Whites Yard, Supermarine (shelter hit), Northam and Woolston hit. St Barnabas Church destroyed. Second wave of bombers hit Woolston and Northam."
The Southern Daily Echo, 25 September, was, as usual, low-key in its reporting. Under a front-page headline "CHURCH HIT IN S.E. TOWN: Bombs Dropped in Three Districts", it printed four sentences. Three described the bombers and the response to them from ground and air, and the fourth said: "A church, amongst other buildings, was hit, and there were casualties, some fatal." On the back page we find "NAZI COMMUNIQUE: Southampton Factory Claimed Hit."
The factory was Supermarine, where there had been a direct hit on an air raid shelter.
20 people were killed "at the Supermarine Works", and three "at White's yard"
See 1939-1940 the war comes to Southampton from the Supermariners website
Altogether 41 people were killed, including:
Eva Thompson of Woodford, Copsewood Road, who died at St Barnabas Church.
Ethel Berta Young of "Niton" 5, Bassett Avenue. Mrs Young's husband, Hector Young had been Mayor of Southampton in 1929. In her obituary in the Echo, 27 September 1940, she was described as "a well-known and popular figure" involved in voluntary work for the Royal South Hants Hospital, the Southampton Youth Committee and the British Legion.
Also lost were her neighbours at 6, Bassett Avenue:
Mary Ann Olive and her companion
Catherine Sarah Thresher
60 year old Laura Long was last seen alive in Belvidere Terrace, Northam on the 24 September 1940, and her body was found the next day. Her son William, a Southampton Corporation lorry driver, received £38.16s on the administration of her estate in 1947.
26 September 1940
"FIFTY 'PLANES RAID A SOUTHAMPTON AREA: Working Class Homes Demolished…Casualties, some of them fatal, are reported" (Southern Daily Echo, 27 September 1940)
Walter Kingston recorded bombs at "Supermarine, Whites Yard, Peartree Avenue, Gas Works, Marne and Balaclava Roads at Bitterne."
50 people died:
Three members of the Home Guard:
John Hughes
James William Living, listed as a civilian.
Donald Maxwell Looker
and 47 Civilians.
Of these, nine died in the second raid on Supermarine. The Germans claimed "great destruction by direct hits on sheds and and other workshops." Six men were killed at the Railway Arch nearby, and one in Peartree Avenue.
Nine were killed in the Docks, six at the Gas Works in Northam, and thirteen in the working class houses of Melbourne Street.
27 September 1940
Three men who had been at the Gas Works, and one from the Docks, died from injuries received 26 September at Royal South Hants Hospital.
Arthur Manly Hotson, Public Works Labourer, injured at the Gas Works.
Henry William Preston, injured at the Gas Works.
Frederick William John Seaborn, injured at the Gas Works.
Harry Weeks, Coal Porter, injured at the Docks.
28 September 1940
Sydney Albert Richard Waters, died at Royal South Hants Hospital of injuries received 26 September at the Supermarine works.
29 September 1940
Charles John Hockley died at the Borough (now the General) Hospital, of injuries received 26 September at the Gas Works.
Tom David Norris died at the Borough (now the General) Hospital, of injuries received 26 September at the Docks, where he was a stevedore.
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Sotonopedia last updated 26 September 2020
