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Bethnal Green, 70 Years on

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Elizabethofseasons

Elizabethofseasons Report 4 Mar 2013 20:50

Dear All

Hello


The worst civilian disaster of World War II in Great Britain has been
marked on the 70th anniversary of the Bethnal Green Tube accident.


173 people, including 62 children, died in a crush on 3 March 1943, when people rushed to enter the station after hearing air-raid sirens.

In fact, the alarm was only a test and the news reporting of the incident
was heavily censored.


Hundreds of people attended the service at St John on Bethnal Green Church,
east London.


Father Alan Green, who took the service, said it was cathartic to honour the victims given the original lack of information.

He said: "The problem with the previous memorial and the cover up was the names were not publicly acknowledged so each year we have centred on reading out those names and lighting 173 candles which we place on the altar to mark those lives."


A plaque was placed at the station in the 1990s but the first section of a new Stairway to Heaven monument has now been completed.

Rest in peace to those who were killed.


Take gentle care all
Sincere wishes
Elizabeth
xx

MR_MAGOO

MR_MAGOO Report 4 Mar 2013 21:02

A link to a few videos of the disaster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUVjXV_14Jc&feature=share&list=PL054BCEA0BE150167

Rest in peace.

Joy

Joy Report 4 Mar 2013 21:17

May they rest in peace.

BrianW

BrianW Report 5 Mar 2013 09:36

I lost five rellies in the Dame Alice Owen school air raid shelter disaster on 15th October 1940 when 109 people died out of 150 in the shelter, mostly by drowning when the shelter in the basement of the school flooded.
They were three teenage girls and their parents, the mother's body was never recovered.

Researching:
Sherwood (Kent); Jesson (London); Worboys (Herts)

Elizabethofseasons

Elizabethofseasons Report 5 Mar 2013 19:15

Dear Mr Magoo, Joy and Brian W

Hello


Thank you for your replies and I am very sorry for your loss, Brian W.

So many tragedies in wartime.


Take gentle care
Sincere wishes
Elizabeth
xx

jansmith

jansmith Report 5 Mar 2013 21:55

I remember a thread on here where many of us tried to find out more about those who died to find links with living relatives