Hamilton Road Cemetery, Deal
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Hamilton Road Cemetery is a combined municipal and military burial ground situated in the coastal town of Deal, Kent, in
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
. Opened in May 1856, it was created to provide a new burial ground for Deal at a time when its general population was expanding and when previous, often ad hoc facilities for dealing with deaths in the area no longer sufficed. The cemetery's civilian burials are managed by Dover Council, and its military burials by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...
. It contains a Cross of Sacrifice of some significance and the burials of military service personnel from
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and, very unusually,
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, many of whom took part in some of the most famous incidents in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, including: the Gallipoli Campaign, the Battle of the Somme, the 1918
Zeebrugge Raid The Zeebrugge Raid ( nl, Aanval op de haven van Zeebrugge; ) on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the Royal Navy to block the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. The British intended to sink obsolete ships in the canal entrance, to prevent Germ ...
, the
Battle of Dunkirk The Battle of Dunkirk (french: Bataille de Dunkerque, link=no) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on t ...
, the
Battle of the Denmark Strait The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the ''Kriegsmarine''. The British battleship and the battlecruiser fought the German battleshi ...
and sinking of , the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
, and the more modern tragedy of the
Deal barracks bombing The Deal barracks bombing was an attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on the Royal Marine Depot, Deal, England. It took place at 8:22 am on 22 September 1989, when the IRA exploded a time bomb at the Royal Marines School of Mus ...
in September 1989. It also contains 66 local civilian war dead from World War II killed by German bombing and shelling between 1940 and 1945, 127 military burials from World War I (including three unidentified Naval ratings), and 54 from World War II. There is a small mortuary chapel associated with the cemetery, but no dedicated church as such.


1914–1920


Notable Army and Royal Marine interments from 1914–1920

Image:Zeebrugge Raid graphic.JPG, Graphic depiction of the Zeebrugge Raid in World War I File:V Beach Helles Gallipoli.jpg, Cape Helles, Gallipoli, 6 May 1915 File:The Gravestone of Lieutenant Sillitoe.jpg, The Grave of Lieutenant "Willie" Ernest Sillitoe, Killed in Action aboard HMS ''Iris'', 23 April 1918, in the Zeebrugge Raid. Image:23rd Batalion of Quebec City, second Canadian Expeditionary Force.jpg, The 23rd Infantry Battalion, Second Canadian Expeditionary Force, Quebec City, Canada. The first military burials date from 1914, and the majority of the cemetery's military interments belong to the Great War rather than to World War II. There are also some Royal Marines Light Infantry burials dating to 1919 and 1920, additionally, and quite a number of graves of Canadian nationals. Notable graves include: # The graves of two of the Royal Marines killed in the 1918
Zeebrugge Raid The Zeebrugge Raid ( nl, Aanval op de haven van Zeebrugge; ) on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the Royal Navy to block the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. The British intended to sink obsolete ships in the canal entrance, to prevent Germ ...
on 23 April of that year: Private John Bostock, CH/19897, and Lieutenant William Edward Sillitoe. Both were from the Royal Marine Light Infantry 4th Battalion. # The grave of Private Arthur Maltby, listed as service number 126276,
The Royal Montreal Regiment The Royal Montreal Regiment is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army based in Westmount, Quebec. It is part of the 2nd Canadian Division's 34 Canadian Brigade Group. Lineage File:RMR Colour.jpg, The regimental colour of The R ...
. He died on 27 April 1918. His parents are listed as being Arthur and Elizabeth Maltby, of 256, Huron Street, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, though he is listed as being born in
Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
, in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. He enlisted in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, on 9 September 1915, aged 20 years and nine months. # The grave of Private William Hawley, from the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles), from the Canadian Expeditionary Force, regimental number 919811, who died aged 20 on 10 October 1918, just one month before the end of the Great War. Private Hawley was the son of Peter and Mary Hawley, of 114A, Forfar St,
Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
he was also not born in Canada, but in County Kerry in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. # The grave of Royal Marines
Major-general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Sir David Mercer, KCB, and holder of the rank of Commandeur of the French
Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
. Twice mentioned in dispatches, he served in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
,
Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
, and in the Gallipoli Campaign. He was associated with the Band of the Royal Marine Light Infantry (Chatham Division), who by his permission played in a World War I memorial concert at St Paul's Cathedral on 19 November 1918.


Notable naval interments 1914–1920

File:HMS Niger 1892-1914 - Project Gutenberg eText 18333.jpg, HMS ''Niger'', 1892–1914 File:Submarine U-12 circa 1915.jpg, German Submarine U-12 File:Canadian drifter CD-27 CN-3347.jpg, A Canadian Armed Drifter File:The Gravestone of C.L.Boniface of HMS Niger.jpg, The grave of Stoker 1st Class Boniface from HMS ''Niger''. # The grave of C. L. Boniface, Stoker 1st Class, Service Number K/5397/PO. The
minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...
he served on, HMS ''Niger'' was torpedoed and sunk off Deal on 11 November 1914, possibly by the German submarine ''U-12''. Stoker Boniface was 23 years old at the time of his death, and was the son of George and Elizabeth Boniface of 1, Manor Cottages,
Felpham Felpham (, sometimes pronounced locally as ''Felf-fm'') is a village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. Although sometimes considered part of the urban area of greater Bognor Regis, it is a village and civil parish in ...
,
Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns i ...
. # The grave of Victor Joseph Benoit, son of Joseph Benoit, of Cape St. George, Newfoundland, from the Dominion of Newfoundland, a
Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...
Ordinary Seaman who served on the HM Armed
Naval drifter A naval drifter is a boat built along the lines of a commercial fishing drifter but fitted out for naval purposes. The use of naval drifters is paralleled by the use of naval trawlers. Fishing trawlers were designed to tow heavy trawls, so they w ...
''Frons Olivae'', which hit a
Naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
off Ramsgate on 12 October 1915 in an explosion which sunk the ship and killed most of the Anglo-Canadian crew, including
Able Seaman An able seaman (AB) is a seaman and member of the deck department of a merchant ship with more than two years' experience at sea and considered "well acquainted with his duty". An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination o ...
George Files, Engineman Albert Brown, Seaman James Walker Hynes, Lieutenant Thomas Evan Rogers, and coal trimmer Francis (Frank) Robert Newark. Other casualties included Seaman George H. Le Drew from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, Engineman Charles Leggett from the Royal Naval Reserve, the Skipper; George S. Meale, Seaman Stephen Sparkes from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and Deck Hand William M. Wooldridge, also from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve. # The grave of Ordinary Seaman Joseph Arsenault, Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve, Regimental Number VR/3512, from the shore base of HMS ''Pembroke'', who died on 16 June 1917 of unknown causes.


1921–1939: The Deal Cross of Sacrifice

File:Allenby.jpg, Field Marshal Allenby Image:The Deal Cross of Sacrifice.jpg, The Deal Cross of Sacrifice Image:The Deal Cross of Sacrifice Inscription.jpg, The Deal Cross of Sacrifice Inscription Image:Gravestone of an Unknown Sailor of the Great War.jpg, Gravestone of an Unknown Sailor of the Great War In November 1925, a
war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...
called The Deal Cross of Sacrifice was unveiled by Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, one of the Great War's most prestigious and controversial British commanders, who was also Captain of
Deal Castle Deal Castle is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII in Deal, Kent, between 1539 and 1540. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the strategically i ...
at that time. The ceremony was very well-attended, and included two
lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
s, a
colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
who was also the holder of the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
, a major, Deal's
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
, the town serjeant bearing the ceremonial mace,
councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
s,
aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members the ...
, priests from three different churches and denominations, Walmer's Council, representatives from the
International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
, St. John Ambulance,
The Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in n ...
, a large number of war veterans from the Volunteers Old Comrades' Association, and a Guard of Honour from the Royal Marines, who also provided a party of buglers. The ceremony, as reported in the Saturday 14 November 1925 edition of ''The Deal, Walmer, and Sandwich Mercury'' newspaper, included the full text of his speech, reproduced here below: llenby_was_quoting_Robert_Browning's_poem_"Prospice",_here....html" ;"title="Robert_Browning.html" ;"title="llenby was quoting Robert Browning">llenby was quoting Robert Browning's poem "Prospice", here...">Robert_Browning.html" ;"title="llenby was quoting Robert Browning">llenby was quoting Robert Browning's poem "Prospice", here...


1940–1945


Notable naval interments from WW2 and the Battle of Dunkirk (1940)

Image:HMS Wessex.jpg, W-class British destroyer HMS ''Wessex'' Image:Dunkirk2.gif, British evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk Image:Polish destroyer Burza.jpg, Polish Navy ''Wicher''-class destroyer ORP ''Burza'' There had been no military burials for a generation by the outbreak of World War II, and the need to bury new casualties from the British Expeditionary Force and from action in the English Channel meant the establishment of a new dedicated section in the far northern corner of the cemetery grounds. Notable burials include: # Chief Petty Officer William Eden, service number P/K 5943, from the naval shore base of HMS ''Fervent'' (which encompassed part of Ramsgate Harbour), who died on 27 September 1939, age and cause of death unknown. # Stoker 1st Class William Caisley from the W-class destroyer HMS ''Wessex''. His ship had left Dover on 24 May 1940 with three other warships, the V-class HMS ''Vimiera'', the W-class HMS ''Wolfhound'' and the Polish Navy ''Wicher''-class destroyer ORP ''Burza''. The ships had orders to attack German troop formations heading towards Calais, but the Wessex was in her turn attacked by Stuka dive bombers, resulting in the ship sinking and survivors being rescued by the ''Vimiera'', which was in turn heavily damaged and forced to withdraw. Stoker Caisley died the next day, presumably of wounds. # Able Seaman William Edward Gibbs, who served on board the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
W-class destroyer HMS ''Windsor''. His ship was part of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla based at Dover, and was taking part in the developing Dunkirk evacuation, the Windsor undertaking patrol and escort duties for some of the ships evacuating allied soldiers from the beaches. On 28 May 1940, his ship came under a coordinated and sustained aerial attack which resulted in the death of himself and 29 of his crew-mates. Despite this, The Windsor, still suffering significant battle damage, returned to Dunkirk and had rescued nearly four thousand troops from the beaches by the culmination of
Operation Dynamo Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
. #
Leading Seaman Leading seaman is a junior non-commissioned rank or rate in navies, particularly those of the Commonwealth. When it is used by NATO nations, leading seaman has the rank code of OR-4. It is often equivalent to the army and air force rank of c ...
Stanley George Bone, from the G-class destroyer HMS ''Greyhound'', who died on 31 May 1940. His ship was carrying over 500 troops from the beaches of Dunkirk when it was attacked, resulting in several deaths, his included. The destroyer was badly damaged and had to be taken in tow by the Polish ''Grom''-class destroyer ORP ''Błyskawica'' and tugs, and returned to England.


Notable Allied interments from the Battle of Britain (1940)

File:Hamilton Road Cemetery Grave of Royal Marine Killed on 29 10 1940.jpg, Grave of Marine Frederick Henry Drake File:Fiat Br.20.jpg, Italian Fiat BR.20 Medium Bomber from the Corpo Aereo Italiano File:Rastingtractable.jpg, Men of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. File:Italy-Royal-Airforce.svg, Wing Roundel on fascist-era Regia Aeronautica's aircraft On 29 October 1940, the Royal Marines Barracks in Deal was attacked from the air. Historian David Collyer claims that the bombers were actually not from the
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
; This would indicate that the attackers were from the Italian Corpo Aereo Italiano equipped with Fiat BR.20 bombers: 29 October 1940 saw a major operation by the Italian Air Corps against Ramsgate, some eleven miles from Deal, and the bombers, painted a green and bright blue and flying in perfect wingtip formation, were accompanied by a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter escort. Six of the eight casualties were buried side by side, symbolically, in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, in the new Plot C area of the cemetery which already had a number of recent interments by the end of 1940. The casualties were: # Second Lieutenant Robert Prynne Nelson, B.A. (
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
), aged 28, from the Royal Marines Siege Regiment. He was the son of Robert and Mary Susanna Nelson, of Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Nelson had been a first-class cricketer who played for
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
and
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
in the seasons 1931 to 1939. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4750. His gravestone bears the inscription:Lieutenant Nelson was remembered fondly: # Marine George Frederick Lewis, a veteran soldier of World War I, aged 48, service number CH/16313. No family details are given. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4751. # Marine David Girling, aged 48, service number PLY/15078, Son of David and Caroline Girling; husband of Ethel Alice Girling, of Ewhurst, Surrey. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4752. # Marine Frederick Henry Drake, aged 50, service number CH/16617, son of Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Drake; husband of Christina Ann Drake, of Walmer, Deal. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4753. His gravestone bears an inscription: # Bugler Henry James Clemenson, aged 26, service number PO/X 625, son of George Charles and Caroline Margaret Clemenson, of Gosport, Hampshire. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4754. # Private Frederick John Clifford Drewery, age unknown, service number 4038695, from the
King's Shropshire Light Infantry The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. In 19 ...
(7th Battalion). No family details are given. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4755. It is to be noticed that Private Drewery was a long way from his unit when he died and there is currently no information on why he was at the Barracks that day. However, his burial plot position indicated that he was a probably a casualty of the events that day. Right next to these casualties of an Italian air raid, three German Luftwaffe air crew from a Dornier bomber are interred. They have their own story to tell.


Notable Axis interments from the Battle of Britain (1940)

File:Hamilton Road Cemetery Luftwaffe Aircrew Grave.jpg, A photo of the graves of Leopold Kaluza, Herbert Reinsch, and Heinz Fischer File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-341-0456-04, Frankreich, Flugzeuge Dornier Do 17.jpg, A flight of Dornier D0 17s File:Flint shingle on Kingsdown beach - geograph.org.uk - 236772.jpg, Kingsdown beach, where the remains of the crew were washed up. By Penny Mayes. File:German WWI War Cemetery, Cannock Chase, England.jpg, Cannock Chase German War Cemetery In Plot C, Block 8 are the graves of three of a four-man
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
bomber crew whose aircraft, a
Dornier Do 17 The Dornier Do 17 is a twin-engined light bomber produced by Dornier Flugzeugwerke for the German Luftwaffe during World War II. Designed in the early 1930s as a '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") intended to be fast enough to outrun opposing a ...
, 3495 U5+DM from
Kampfgeschwader 4 ''Kampfgeschwader'' 4 "General Wever" (KG 4) (Battle Wing 4) was a Luftwaffe bomber wing during World War II. The unit was formed in May 1939. The unit operated the Dornier Do 17, Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 medium bombers, with later se ...
, a type of plane sometimes referred to as the ''Fliegender Bleistift'' (German: "flying pencil"), had crashed into the sea at 20:40 hours on 9 November 1940, of unknown causes, off the coast of Kingsdown, Kent. Historian David Collyer states that their bodies were washed up on the beach nearby, although the circumstances of their burial indicate that only body parts were found for two of the crew, a third was found more or less intact, and the fourth's remains were, he claims, never recovered. The crew were as follows: a)
Unteroffizier () is a junior non-commissioned officer rank used by the . It is also the collective name for all non-commissioned officers in Austria and Germany. It was formerly a rank in the Imperial Russian Army. Austria , also , is the collective name to ...
Leopold Kaluza, aged 23, from Klausberg (originally in Austria, now in Italy, in the
South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous area, Autonomous Provinces of Italy, province , image_skyline = ...
area). (Service Number 58213/87) b) Heinz Fischer, aged 25, from
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
(Service Number 58213/42, no rank information available) c) Unteroffizier Herbert Reinsch, aged 20, also from Dresden (Service Number 58213/28). Unlike all the other military graves in this cemetery, Heinz Fischer and Herbert Reinsch appear to be buried together in a single grave, and a separate headstone has been erected for Leopold Kaluza, which was erected right next to Fischer's and Reinsch's (see photograph, above). The December 2009 Newsletter from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission explains; d) Leutnant Günther Mollenhauer, aged 21, from the city of Sprottau in what was then the German
Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...
, and is now called
Szprotawa Szprotawa (german: Sprottau) is a town in western Poland, in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship. It has 11,820 inhabitants (2019). History The region was part of Poland after the emergence of the Piast monarchy in the 10th century. The first me ...
, in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. His service number was -53576/636-1./Erg.K.Gr.2, and he was born on 17 October 1919. Leutnant Mollenhauer, who, because of his rank was probably the pilot, was believed
missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...
by some historians. However, the records of the '' Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V.'' (VDK), Dover District Council, and the
Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) The was a German government agency based in Berlin which maintained records of members of the former German who were killed in action, as well as official military records of all military personnel during World War II (ca. 18 million) as well as ...
indicate that his body was found on the foreshore of the old
Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
of Sholden, on the dunes between
Sandown Castle, Kent Sandown Castle was an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII in Sandown, Kent, between 1539 and 1540. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the strategi ...
and the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club on 15 November 1940, three days after his comrades had been buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, and six days after the crash. The date of death of all four of the crew is wrongly listed on their graves as being the 12 and 15 November respectively. This is because the date used is the day they were found washed up on the beach. Leutnant Mollenhauer was not buried in the Hamilton Road cemetery however, and was instead buried in Aylesham cemetery on 18 November, at grave reference "P.A.7.". The reason why he was buried at Aylesham cemetery is unknown. The Hamilton Road cemetery is the closest, Aylesham is around 8 miles from Deal even by the most direct route, and Dover is half that distance, and has many more cemeteries. However, Aylesham cemetery contains 11 mixed World War II burials, of which six are from the
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
and the
Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
(and the majority of interments there are NCOs and junior officer ranks) so it may just be that this cemetery was partly designated for non-British air crew burials at that time. Also, there is no reason to suppose that the British authorities at this time were aware that Leutnant Mollenhauer was from the same plane as Fischer, Reinsch and Kaluza. This might explain why some sources believed Leutnant Mollenhauer was MIA. Although the burials of three of the four crew-members in the cemetery are listed on the Commonwealth War Graves home page for Deal Cemetery, there are no individual cemetery reports for them as there are for the other foreign interments in the cemetery. In 1959, German casualties who were not buried in either military cemeteries or in Commonwealth War Grave Commission plots were moved to Cannock Chase German war cemetery in Staffordshire to be reinterred with other German casualties. The crew of 3495 U5+DM, having already been buried in an administered plot, were not moved, and form part of a very small group of Axis casualties that are still to be found in their original World War II era plots in the United Kingdom and
Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
. They are more unusual still, as the VDK specifically states that many of the burials in Cannock Chase consist of casualties from fallen combat aircraft and/or were washed ashore elsewhere, making this unmoved burial an even rarer event. Leutnant Mollenhauer, along with several other Germans who were buried in the Aylesham cemetery, was disinterred on 29 October 1962, and was re-buried in Cannock Chase. His grave is in Block: 1, Row 9, Grave 326. CWGC records indicate that there are less than one hundred remaining German interments in Kent, almost all of whom are buried near World War II RAF Bases; These include eighteen casualties at Margate cemetery which was close to
RAF Manston Royal Air Force Manston or more simply RAF Manston is a former Royal Air Force station located in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site was split between a commercial airport Kent International Airpo ...
, seventeen at Maidstone Cemetery which was located near
RAF Detling Royal Air Force Detling or more simply RAF Detling is a former Royal Air Force station situated above sea level, located near Detling, a village about miles north-east of Maidstone, Kent. It was a station of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS ...
&
RAF West Malling Royal Air Force West Malling or RAF West Malling is a former Royal Air Force station located south of West Malling, Kent and west of Maidstone, Kent, England. Originally used as a landing area during the First World War,RAF Hawkinge. Casualty details of German interments are not given in CWGC cemetery reports, however, and the online resources available on the VDK website concentrate around Cannock Chase and
St. Peter Port St. Peter Port (french: Saint-Pierre Port) is a town and one of the ten parishes on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is the capital of the Bailiwick of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2019 was 18,958. St. P ...
, Guernsey, meaning that German casualty details are generally only obtainable through a direct request to the CWGC or its German counterpart, or by visiting and locating the interments directly. Their bomber was never recovered, and still lies in the English channel as an unmarked
war grave A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...
. However, the ''East Kent Mercury'' newspaper (1 April 2010) has printed a story stating that part of a World War II German bomber – apparently a tail fin and rudder – has been washed up on the beach at Kingsdown after a storm, and that local divers have also previously found a propeller and part of what they believed to be part of the undercarriage. The plane, states the paper, is "believed to be that of a Dornier Do 17..." The discovery has been officially reported to the
Receiver of Wreck The Receiver of Wreck is an official who administers law dealing with maritime wrecks and salvage in some countries having a British administrative heritage. In the United Kingdom, the Receiver of Wreck is also appointed to retain the possession o ...
. The paper reports that the group of local history enthusiasts who initially identified the plane plan further exploratory diving in the summer of 2010, so see whether the plane can be definitively identified. However, the
Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...
means that any such investigation will have to be on a "look but don't touch" basis as interference with the wreck is specifically forbidden by the Act. There is also the added complication that if it is likely that human remains will be found, no license to excavate will be issued by the Ministry of Defence. However, the removal of uncertainty about Leutnant Mollenhauer now makes it more likely that the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (which is part of the
Service Personnel and Veterans Agency The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) was an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. The SPVA provided personnel, pensions, welfare and support services to members of the UK Armed Forces, veterans and their dependents. It was f ...
) will, if asked, grant a license for an archaeological investigation, and the Receiver of Wreck has informed the
Embassy of Germany in London The Embassy of Germany in London is the diplomatic mission of Germany in the United Kingdom. The embassy is located at Belgrave Square, in Belgravia. It occupies three of the original terraced houses in Belgrave Square and a late 20th-century ex ...
of the discovery of wreckage from what may have been Leutnant Mollenhauer's Dornier.
BBC South East BBC South East is the BBC English region serving Kent, East Sussex, most parts of West Sussex and southern parts of Surrey. The BBC region was created in September 2001 by the joining of the Heathfield transmitter (formerly part of the BBC ...
has also run a story on this, featuring a report by Peter Whittlesea, which links the remains specifically to 3495 U5+DM, though this has yet to be proven. The TV report is erroneous, listing the date of the crash as the 12th, and claiming that the body of the pilot was washed up and buried at the cemetery, whereas in fact Leutnant Mollenhauer was interred elsewhere. However, the report was broadcast before the Leutnant's fate was investigated and made apparent. The report does however show a fascinating interview with an eye-witness, a Mr. Peter Kirling, who saw a German bomber crash in the area at the time. The TV report also shows footage of an aircraft's tail section, which at the time was being reserved from degradation by being kept submerged in a children's paddling pool of a local public house. A second bomber, Dornier Do 17Z Werke nr. 1160, call sign 5K+AR, was discovered partially buried and largely intact in the nearby
Goodwin Sands Goodwin Sands is a sandbank at the southern end of the North Sea lying off the Deal coast in Kent, England. The area consists of a layer of approximately depth of fine sand resting on an Upper Chalk platform belonging to the same geologi ...
on 3 September 2010, and was raised successfully by a salvage company on 10 June 2013. One of the two crew killed is also buried, like Leutnant Mollenhauer, at Cannock Chase.


Other notable military and uniformed services casualties from WW2

File:Hamilton Road Cemetery Grave of H Spinner and George Spinner.jpg, Headstone of Sergeant Spinner and his brother George, lost on HMS ''Hood''. File:British Battlecruiser HMS Hood circa 1932.jpg, Battlecruiser HMS Hood File:The Auxiliary Territorial Service in the United Kingdom 1939 - 1945 H36315.jpg, ATS Searchlight Unit File:Halifax-mk3.jpg, Halifax Bomber as used by 77 Squadron # The Grave of
Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...
Robert James Firth Buysman from 501 Field Coy.
Corps of Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
, service number 2077231, Son of Cornelius James Alexander Kelder Buysman and Kathleen Ellen Buysman, of Dulwich, London, who died aged just 21 on 29 July 1940. According to historian David Collyer, he died when he stepped on a
land mine A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
at Kingsdown. # The Grave of Percy Charles Deniss, a serving member of the Air Raid Precautions organisation (usually abbreviated to the ARP) Rescue service. Husband of Mignon Constance Denniss, of 157 Mill Road, Deal, he died at Park Lane in Deal on 31 August 1940. He was killed in a bombing raid at 13:00 that afternoon that saw six high explosive bombs kill six people, seriously injure another, and slightly injure a civilian. The raid destroyed two houses, seriously damaging over 50 other houses. Another ARP warden, a Mr. Shotbolt, had a lucky escape which saw him with holes in his equipment (including a bicycle and a gas mask) as a souvenir. # The Grave of Air gunner Henry Spinner, a Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Sergeant, from
No. 77 Squadron RAF No. 77 Squadron RAF was a squadron of the Royal Air Force which was active in various incarnations between 1916 and 1963. History No. 77 Squadron was formed on 1 October 1916 at Edinburgh, and was equipped with B.E.2 and B.E.12 aircraft. The squ ...
, who died on 20 December 1942. No. 77 Squadron RAF were at that time training to use the
Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its orig ...
bombers, based at
RAF Elvington Royal Air Force Elvington or more simply RAF Elvington is a former Royal Air Force station which operated from the beginning of the Second World War until 1992 located at Elvington, Yorkshire, England. History Royal Air Force use The station ...
in Yorkshire and were not declared operational until the end of January 1943, so Air Gunner Spinner may have died in an air accident.
His brother, George David Spinner, is also commemorated on the headstone, having died in the destruction of the Admiral-class battlecruiser, on 24 May 1941. A photograph of him is available on the HMS ''Hood'' Association Website.
Both men were only 21 when they died. # The Grave of Private Ivy Berwick from the
Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...
, daughter of Thomas Hayton Berwick and Ann Berwick, of Deal, who died aged 25 on 30 April 1942. Little else is known about her, but she appears to be the only female military casualty buried in the cemetery. # The grave of James Thomas Bonner, a serving member of the
Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting w ...
, of 22 Beaconsfield Road in Deal, son of George Frederick Bonner and Elizabeth Edith Bonner, who died at the Southern Railway Goods Yard (now Deal Railway Station) on 8 May 1942. The bombing raid at 13:17 that day that also killed two children (see below) and buried several others at a nearby Roman Catholic Convent School. The raid seriously injured ten others, whilst 15 received minor injuries. It also blew the top floor off the Labour Exchange and the librarian working in the library opposite had a fortuitous escape according to an eye-witness report. # Police Constable Cecil George Constable, Son of Richard and Emily Constable, who died at 91 Canada Road (opposite the Royal Marines Barracks that was probably the intended target) on 18 May 1942, aged 41, in a hit and run raid at 6:20 am that morning. One old lady who was in bed at that time had a lucky escape when one Bomb failed to explode on contact and went straight through her bedroom walls, apparently coming to a halt on the steps in front of the Gas Company office. # The grave of Fireman Terence Albert Ilett, a National Fire Service volunteer who was awarded the Certificate for Gallantry. Son of Albert William and Mary Matilda Ilett, of 8 Flamstead Road,
Charlton, London Charlton is an area of southeast London, England, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east of Greenwich and west of Woolwich, on the south bank of the River Thames, southeast of Charing Cross. An ancient parish in the county of Kent, it b ...
, he died at Dover Road,
Walmer Walmer is a town in the district of Dover, Kent, in England. Located on the coast, the parish of Walmer is south-east of Sandwich, Kent. Largely residential, its coastline and castle attract many visitors. It has a population of 6,693 (2001), i ...
on 26 September 1944, aged just 19.


1940 to 1945: Civilian War Graves

Image:OperationSealion.svg, Map showing German invasion plans Image:NA-306-NT-3163V.jpg, The aftermath of an air raid during the Blitz Image:Knocked out German coastal battery HD-SN-99-02705.JPG, The German Crisbecq Battery Deal became the target of German bombing raids and shelling from German coastal guns in occupied France from 1940 onwards as part of
Operation Sea Lion Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion (german: Unternehmen Seelöwe), was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Battle o ...
, and its wide, gently sloping beaches were in the area of the proposed beach-head for the German 16th Army. Raids and shelling targeted infrastructure such as the railways, military targets such as the Royal Marines Barracks, as well as attempting to break down civilian morale. Deal was also in the area where the Battle of Britain was being fought in the air, and civilian casualties were inevitable. Blast injury often meant that victims who survived the initial bombing died soon after from internal injuries with no external sign of trauma or injury. Those who survived both sometime suffered long-term problems caused by blast induced neurotrauma or
barotrauma Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between a gas space inside, or contact with, the body and the surrounding gas or liquid. The initial damage is usually due to over-stretching the tissues in tens ...
. There were a number of major air raids or shelling attacks which caused clusters of fatalities on and around particular dates, and there were many more killed in these raids than are buried in the Hamilton Road cemetery, as some were buried in one of Deal or Walmer's other church graveyards. Husbands and wives died together, often their children too, and occasionally entire families who had the misfortune to be at home together when the bombs started to fall. The inscriptions on the gravestones of civilian War Dead buried in the cemetery provide many unexpected insights into the lives of the people of Deal in the Second World War, the society they lived in, as well as their deaths.


4 October 1940: Luftwaffe Air Raid on Deal

This bombing raid at 13:20 on a cold Friday afternoon resulted in severe damage to Union Road, Middle Street, destroyed the Governor's Quarters in Deal Castle, and caused the deaths of eight civilians including three children, the youngest of which was two years old. An eyewitness account from a lady called Mary Osbourn, with classic period British contempt for German attacks, recounts what happened when she, who was in the greengrocers buying vegetables at the time, saw the bombers overhead: Seven of the eight casualties were buried in Hamilton Road cemetery. # Reginald George James Denton, aged just thirteen, who died at home at 21 Union Street along with his mother, May Lilian Denton, aged 32. Her husband and Reginald's father, R.G Denton, is not listed, probably because he was not at home when the attack took place. It is not known if any other members of the family survived. # Terrence Alfred Marsh, aged just six, who died at his home at 29 Union Street. He was the son of Son of Alfred and F. Marsh, who survived their son's death. # The Gisby Family, who lived at number 47 Middle Street but were killed at number 36. The husband, William George Gisby, of the
Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...
, 2nd Battalion, died alongside his wife, Lucy Gisby (née Harris) and their two-year-old son William Gisby. # Julia Harris, aged 18, who lived, and died at home at 36 Middle Street. She was the daughter of P. and L. Harris.
One contributor has provided the author with further information on the background of the Gisby and Harris family. The contributor states that Julia Harris' parents were Patrick and Lucy L. Harris, and that Lucy Gisby was actually Julia's older sister. This can be substantiated by cross-referencing the CWGC casualty details which lists P. and L. Harris as parents for both women.
As the contributor states, this meant that in one attack, Mr and Mrs. P. and L. Harris lost their daughters Lucy and Julia, their grandson William, and their son-in-law, William Gisby. It is now clear that it was Private William Gisby that historian David Collyer is referring to when he states that the son-in-law's body was not found until Spring 1941, upon the roof of the (three-storey) Clarendon Hotel in Deal, according to the ARP. This, surprisingly, was not unremarkable, as the force of a Luftwaffe bomb exploding created a
shock wave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...
which travelled at supersonic speed, and there were many recorded incidents of civilian casualties in World War II being found in similar circumstances. # Harriett Bowles, aged 82, who lived, and died at home at 20 Union Street. She was the widow of Mr. J Bowles. She lived next door to Mrs. Denton and son Reginald, who were also killed. The CWGC site lists her date of death as the 7th, not the 6th as with the rest of the casualties, indicating perhaps that she was buried in the rubble of her house and not discovered until the next day. 20 Union Street – renamed Union Road – was never rebuilt. It is difficult to imagine the sheer scale of this family tragedy, but the destruction that day can now been seen in present-day Deal. Middle Street, now part of the town's historic conservation area, only partially exists today. From the junction of King Street running northwards, it is mostly intact, and the last properties on Middle Street are numbered 61 and 52. The commercial properties next to these that border Middle Street and King Street however are given King Street addresses. Middle Street begins again to the south, bordered by the old Royal Cinema, but stops abruptly and a large central car park begins in an area which probably had in the region of a hundred individual dwellings prior to the War. Union Road was similarly truncated and, like Middle Street, is now partly a car park. Visitors to the Middle Street Library, and shoppers attending the regular Unior Road Saturday Market are unaware that scant feet underneath their cars and market stalls are the remains of so many lost homes and broken lives.


6 May 1942: Luftwaffe hit-and-run bombing raid on Deal Gas Works

April to June 1942 saw the
Baedeker Blitz The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids were a series of aerial attacks in April and May 1942 by the German ''Luftwaffe'' on English cities during the Second World War. The name derives from Baedeker, a series of German tourist guide books, inclu ...
, a campaign by the Luftwaffe to retaliate for the RAF bombing of
Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
in March of that year. Although it was Canterbury that was specifically targeted at the end of May and early June 1942, Deal was to see four air raids that caused significant loss of life during the Spring, Summer, and Autumn of this year. On 6 May 1942, bombs were dropped from what one eyewitness, Peggy Oatridge, called Messerschmitt fighter-bombers, on Alfred Square, Park Lane, and Mill Road. It appears that at least one pilot missed his intended target, the Gas Works, and instead the bomb ricocheted off the side of a building, skidded across the road, and then detonated in front of a small parade of shops and a house on the corner of Alfred Square. Seven people were killed, and they were all buried in the Hamilton Road cemetery. They were: # Hilda Joyce Finn. Aged 25, she was at home at 16 Alfred Square, when the bombs started falling. She was apparently rescued from the rubble by the ARP, but later died of her wounds at the local Victoria War Memorial Hospital in Deal. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick George Finn. # John Arthur Frederick Finn. Aged just 8, he died at home at 16 Alfred Square in the same explosion that claimed the life of his older sister Hilda later that same day. # Mother and Daughter Nellie Middleton, aged 48, and Patricia Mary Middleton, aged 15, who both died at home at 17, Alfred Square. Nellie Middleton was the wife of Able Seaman James Middleton, Royal Navy. # There were further casualties at Park Lane, about 300 metres south of Alfred Square, where brother and sister James Christopher Milham, aged 64, and May Lillian Mary Milham, aged 60, both died at their home. # Sarah May Roots, aged 42, also died in the raid. She died at her home ("Holmleigh") in Park Lane in Deal, and was the daughter of A. C. Lewin, of Cloudesdale Road,
Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times ...
, London and the wife of Stanley George Roots, who apparently survived.


8 May 1942: First Attack on the Southern Railway's Goods Yard

Two days later, on 8 May, two children died in an air raid which killed a member of the Home Guard (see James Thomas Bonner, above). The children were at St Ethelbert's Convent School in Park Street, which was near the railway station, and were: # Michael Ryan, aged 11. # James Francis Rogan, aged 12. A contemporary of theirs, Thelma Brown, remembers what happened: A different source cites the school as being called St Ethelburga's instead, and on balance of probability in terms of the number of references, this appears to be correct.


11 August 1942: Second Luftwaffe attack raid on the Southern Railway's goods yard

August continued to be probably the deadliest month of the War for Deal, as the Luftwaffe kept up their Hit and Run tactics. The evening of the 11th saw a particularly devastating raid, carried out by Luftwaffe fighter-bombers which happened "without warning" according to the ARP Records, at seven minutes past six in the evening. The attack focussed on civilian and military infrastructure targets; Deal's Gas Works (the target of the previous unsuccessful raid on 6 August), the Southern Railway goods yard (attacked three days earlier), the local bus garage belonging to the East Kent Road Car Company, and some eighteen houses in College Road and Albert Road near the targets were destroyed, with another 300 being seriously damaged. The casualties were as follows: # Edward John Toomey, who died aged just 16, on Tuesday 11 August 1942, at Albert Road which bisects the main railway line.
Toomey was a "Police Messenger", analogous to that of Fire Guard Messengers, who were used by the A.R.P. at a time when radio or telephone methods of communication were uncertain or disrupted. Police Messengers were a uniformed service made up in many cases of children up to the age of 18, who were used to relay information between policeman, special constables, and to act as runners "in case of air raids, invasions, or emergencies," in the words of one ex-messenger, William Rorison Gray.
Edward Toomey is also listed as having been a member of the newly established
Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including C ...
. The organisation was designed at that time to prepare cadets for entry into the RAF, and for those adolescents old enough to join, duties could include loading ammunition, filling sandbags, even in some cases handling aircraft. ATC Cadets were often sent to "Camp", which usually meant one or two weeks' service at an operation RAF base where they sometimes helped serving personnel with their work. # Edith Grace Burley (née Higgins), aged 51. She died at home at 64 College Road, and was the daughter of Edward and Emily Higgins, of 13 College Road, She was survived by her husband, Walter John Burley, but it is not known whether they had any children. # Edith's brother, Percy Higgens, aged 46, who also lived at 64 College Road. He is listed as having died at College Road, though the exact location is not given.
According to contemporary reports, a bomb fell next to Swaffield's Laundry, completely destroying number 66 and 68 College Road, and severely damaging number 64, where Mr. Higgins lived. A photograph showing College Road after this attack shows an ARP Rescue Squad climbing over a large pile of bricks that once were two semi-detached houses, vainly looking for survivors. It is very likely therefore that Both Edith and Percy were at home when it happened. # Emma Cavell, aged 77, who lived at 178, the High Street in Deal. She was the daughter of the late Edward Brooksby Cavell, and died at Albert Road. Normally, the casualty details specifies a house number if the death took place at an identifiable address, so it is possible that Emma Cavell was unfortunate enough to be walking along Albert Road at the time. # Charles James Cotton, aged 59, husband of Matilda Cotton, of 1 Bush Avenue, Ramsgate. Mr Cotton appears to have been visiting Deal that day and was unfortunate enough to be in the Albert Road or College Road area at the time. The circumstances of his death, as well as those of Emma Cavell, indicates that either the raid was a surprise and the air raid sirens did not go off in time to allow them to get to a public shelter, or they did not sound at all. Like Hilda Finn, he was probably rescued by the ARP who took him by ambulance to the Victoria War Memorial hospital in Deal, where he later died.
An anonymous contributor has recently indicated to this article's author that Charles Cotton was the contributor's great grandfather, was a steam locomotive driver, and was indeed "killed in a bombing raid while he was driving the Engine." At Ramsgate Railway station, there is a plaque, laid in 2001, which commemorates a C. Cotton and a W. Edwards as being "killed by enemy action", but it does not say where this happened, or the first names. However, it seems to be evidence of the above.
Further documentary confirmation is probably required, but this evidence would however explain Mr Cotton's presence in Deal, and further suggest that one of the bombs that hit Albert Road (which bisects the railway line through Deal) could have killed Mr Cotton. # Florence Goodban, aged 29, who lived at 88 College Road, and died at College Road, though the records do not say exactly where. She was the daughter of Mrs. V. Atkinson, and Florence was married to Mr. Edward Charles Goodban. # Charlotte Pittock, aged 35, whose father is listed as living at 1, Finesbury Road, Ramsgate. However, this appears to be a misspelling, as there is a Finsbury Road which lies just off the modern A255 in Ramsgate, and most of the houses there appear to date from the 19th and early 20th century, indicating that the road name is incorrectly spelled in the records. However, the CWGC is aware of the error and have amended their records, though it may be some time before the website details are updated to match.
Her father lived less than a mile from Charles Cotton (see above), though there is no direct evidence that the two families knew each other. However, circumstantially, it is quite a coincidence that this is the only recorded occasion in World War II Deal where two visitors from the same town died in the same air raid, in the same area of the town, and had male and female versions of the same name ("Charles" and "Charlotte").
She was the daughter of Charles Cullen, and married to George Pittock, and lived at "The Oaks", College Road, in Deal. Again, the exact place of death is not listed, but the records state she died in the same road she lived in with her husband. # Florence Lucy Clara Redsull, aged 64, who lived at 66 College Road, and was married to Mr. Robert Redsull. Again, she is listed as having died at College Road, probably at home as her house was totally destroyed by the bomb.


22 October 1942: Luftwaffe hit-and-run raid on Deal High Street

At 9 am on the morning of 22 October, the Luftwaffe hit non-strategic targets in a civilian area of Deal, specifically the High Street and College Road (for the second time in less than a week) causing great loss of life, as many people were out shopping. Fifteen people died that morning including eight children. One family even lost a mother and both of her very young children in what was one of the most horrific attacks in Deal's history. Thirteen of them were subsequently buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery. The casualties were: # Edna Antcliff, aged 16. She was the daughter of Mrs. E. Marples (formerly Antcliff) and of the late Herbert Antcliff and lived at 79 Cavell Square, Mill Hill. She died in the High Street. Given this is over a mile away, it is likely Edna was out shopping when the attack happened. # William Albert Bransby, aged 59. of 92A High Street. Died at High Street. # Amy Agnes Bransby age unknown. (otherwise BRANSBY). of 92A High Street. Widow of Edwin W. Smith. Died at High Street. She is likely a relation of William Bransby, but nothing more is known apart from the fact they lived at the same address. # William Henry Brown aged 49. Husband of Ada Mary Brown, of 4 Westfield Cottages, Cannon Road. He died at the High Street, though his wife either survived or was elsewhere at the time of the attack. # Elsie Alice Burgess aged 26, and lived at 22, College Road. Daughter of Thomas R. and Bertha J. Cannon, of 10 Prince's Street (which is just off the High street at its northern end; wife of Richard Benjamin Burgess. She died at home, though her husband apparently survived. # Kay Barbara Burgess aged 15 months; of 22 College Road. Daughter of Richard Benjamin Burgess, and of Elsie Alice Burgess. She died at home along with her mother. # Ean Richard Burgess aged 3, of 22 College Road, Deal, Kent. Son of Richard Benjamin Burgess, and of Elsie Alice Burgess (above). Injured 22 October 1942, at 22 College Road; died at Hurstwood Park War Emergency Hospital, Haywards Heath, some one hundred miles away from Deal, on 25 October. Tragically, Mr. Richard Burgess had now lost both of his young children as well as his wife.
This hospital crops up several times in CWGC archives in the casualty detail of civilians and serving members of the armed forces. In each case, they had been injured elsewhere, and moved, often some considerable distance, to this unit. One reference states that it was a specialist neurosurgical unit. # Jane Elizabeth Burke aged 80, of 28 College Road. Daughter of the late William and Jane Wiltshire, of Portsmouth; widow of James Burke. She died at her home address. # Raymond John Giles aged 14. Son of Arthur and Kate Gertrude Giles, of 7 Northway, Betteshanger Colliery. Died at High Street. David Collyer lists him as Raymond Files instead.
Raymond was last thought to be seen in the basement of Gordon Blain's Greengrocer's shop in the High Street. The shop, and three others, were reduced to rubble, and many others were very badly damaged.
His next door neighbour, Mary Osbourn, who nearly died in a 1940 attack on Middle Street (see above), and may well have been in the same greengrocers two years previously, recounted that Raymond's father asked his neighbours in Betteshanger for help to find his son. They, en masse, came into Deal, standing in the back of an old lorry, and dug away at the rubble of the shop until two O'Clock in the morning. Eyewitness accounts do not make it clear whether his body was ever found or not. # Kenneth Percival Moodie aged 13. Son of Frederick Percy Moodie, of 5 Forlands Estate, Telegraph Road. He died at the High Street, a mile or so away from his home. # Thelma Gwendoline Nicholls aged 14, who lived at 10 Frederick Road, Mill Hill. Daughter of the late Robert Thomas Nicholls, she died at the High Street. # Joyce Edith Hughes aged 14. Daughter of Leading Seaman Edward William Hughes, R.N., and May Elizabeth Hughes, of 127 Edward Terrace, Mill Hill. She died at the High Street. # Patricia Rebecca Rigden aged 15. Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Edward Rigden, of 19 Mayers Road, Walmer. She also died at the High Street. # Ethel Jessie Mary Snelling aged unknown. Daughter of J. W. Salmon, of Laburnham Cottage, Weeley Heath, Clacton-on-Sea; wife of John Edward Snelling, of Sunnycot, Godwyn Road in Deal. She died at 26 College Road. # Lucy Spinner aged 66. She was the daughter of David Markham, of Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire; wife of Charles Tigwell Spinner, of Walmer Place Lodge, Walmer. She died at the High Street.
There is an unusual ending to this tragic day. One of the bombs that hit the High Street shattered the large stained glass window at the eastern end of the chancel of St. George the Martyr Church in Deal, which had been installed in 1867 by Dr. G.R. Carter. All that was left after the bombing was a single shard of glass that was incorporated into the new window. It bore a single word: "Hope".


5 November 1942: Cannon Street

Situated so close to Deal's main railway line, Cannon Street was once again on the receiving end of imprecise Luftwaffe ordnance. One bomb demolished three houses next to each other and there were yet more casualties; three dead, one person seriously injured, and six people were slightly injured according to the ARP in raid that happened in the morning. The three dead buried here were: # Alfred Thomas Smith, aged 71, of 4 Cannon Street, Deal. He was the husband of Edith Ellen Smith, he died at home with his wife, Edith (see below). # Edith Ellen Smith, aged 64, she died at home along with her husband, Alfred. # Sarah Ann May Anderton, aged 22, of 2 Cannon Street. She was the daughter of David and Mary Oatridge, and the wife of Harry Anderton. She died at home, though her husband is not listed, either because he survived, or because he was not at home at the time.


20 January 1944: The Roberts Street shelter attack

One of the worst attacks on civilians happened on 20 January 1944, when a civilian shelter and its immediate vicinity was hit by German shellfire from France, killing twelve, including a number of women and children. The shell attack, which started at 5:00 am, hit the civilian street shelter which was being used by only women and children (apparently to allow the men to smoke in a separate shelter next door) in Robert Street in Deal at 5:30 am. An eye-witness at the time claimed that the blast of the explosion killed everyone in the first shelter without leaving a mark on their bodies, though the men, some of whom were their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons in the adjoining shelter escaped, apparently without a scratch. The event was not mentioned at all in the local newspaper, perhaps because of wartime restrictions on reporting, or perhaps because of the desire not to give the enemy any useful propaganda, or perhaps simply because the authorities did not wish to let the German gunners know where their shells had landed so that this information could be used to improve their fire-control. The truth will probably never be known. The casualties included: # The Grave of Mrs.
Zipporah Zipporah, or Tzipora (; he, צִפּוֹרָה, ''Ṣīppōrā'', "bird"),, ''Sepphōra''; ar, صفورة, ''Ṣaffūrah'' is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the wife of Moses, and the daughter of Reuel/Jethro, the priest and prince of Mid ...
Smith, who died, aged 30, at her home address on 20 January 1944. She is listed as being an A.R.P. Ambulance Attendant, and lived, and died, at 7A Robert Street in north Deal. Daughter of Mrs. S. McLeod (formerly Thirkettle), of 36 Barclay Street, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, and of the late Thomas John Thirkettle.
As an Ambulance Attendant, Mrs. Smith would have worked occasionally gruelling shifts, sometimes concurrently, and deal with a range of duties from evacuating the elderly and infirm from sites where an unexploded bomb was, transporting casualties to nearby Deal hospital, and dealing with injuries ranging from the minor scratch through to life-threatening injuries, sometimes in the most appalling circumstances imaginable
Edith Myra Taylor, one ex-ARP Ambulance worker from Kent, remembered what it was like:
Zipporah Smith was eventually a victim herself of one of the most bloody attacks in Deal in the entire war. Her husband, Ernest Smith, is not listed, either because he survived, or because he was not there at the time of the attack. # Mr. John Reed aged 31, of 9 Robert Street. Son of G. Reed, of 1 Bungalow, Deerson Farm, Preston, Canterbury. Mr Reed died at 9 Robert Street, which was later demolished. # Mr. William Richard Mockett aged 66, who lived and died at 1A Robert Street, Deal. # Three members of the same family, who all lived at Faber Villa in Robert Street. They were Mrs. Emma Francis Newing (née Rice), who had married into the Newing family. Her sisters-in-law both died, their names being Edith Hilda Newing, and her older sister Margaretta Annie Newing. They were buried side by side in a large plot, which, unlike many of its contemporaries, remains very well-maintained. The inscription on their grave mentions each by name as well – very unusually – as a description of the circumstances in which they died.
An entry in the personal section of the local newspaper, ''The Deal, Walmer and Sandwich Mercury'', appeared several weeks afterwards, apparently placed by the remaining members of the Newing family, thanking everyone for their expressions of sympathy and support, without mentioning the circumstances in which Emma, Edith, and Margaretta died. Such was wartime.
Faber Villa was damaged but repaired and still stands today, though the property next door was demolished, as were many others in the street which were never rebuilt. This, perhaps, stands as a metaphor for the lives affected by this incident. # A 28-year-old mother and her two young daughters. Gladys Clarice May Dunn died, as well as her 10-month-old infant, Joyce Phyllis Dunn, and her six-year-old sister, Barbara Lilian Joan Dunn as well. The family lived nearby in 25 Princes Street which extends directly into Robert Street. She was survived by her husband, Edward J. Dunn, though it is unclear what happened to him or if the couple had any other children, and the entry in the "deaths" section of the local newspaper the week afterwards does not specify. # Eliza Friend, 48, of 8 Robert Street, wife of Albert Edward Friend She is specifically listed as having died in the Robert Street Shelter, and was remembered in the Personal section of the local newspaper the week afterwards.


1946–1988: Zeebrugge remembered

Image:Lieutenant William E. Sillitoe.jpg, Lieutenant William E. Sillitoe. Image:Churchill portrait NYP 45063.jpg, Sir Winston Churchill Image:Zeebrugge Memorial and Graves from St James Cemetery in Dover.jpg, Zeebrugge Plot at St James Cemetery in Dover. Image:Dedication Text of Zeebrugge Cross of Sacrifice in Dover.jpg, Zeebrugge Cross of Sacrifice, St James Cemetery in Dover. On St. George's Day, 1964, nine of the 46 survivors then remaining of the 1918 Zeebrugge Raid (from the 1,700 who originally took part) commemorated their lost in a service presided over by the Commandant-General of the Royal Marines, General Sir Malcolm Cartwright-Taylor, KCB, and the Mayor of Deal, Alderman Norman Cavell, JP. It was attended by local dignitaries, representatives from the armed forces, and a personal message from
Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, himself a freeman of the town of Deal, was read out to those assembled. The extensive newspaper coverage of the event notes that the main ceremony took place at the Depot in the main barracks in Deal, and that on 24 April, a visit was arranged to St James's Cemetery in Dover where many casualties from the raid were buried some forty-six years previously, and where there is a special "Zeebrugge" Plot with its own Cross of Sacrifice, and a remembrance service is held on St. George's Day. There was no mention of the Hamilton Road cemetery or any visits having taken place to the graves of Lieutenant Sillitoe or Private Bostock (the two casualties of the Zeebrugge Raid buried in the cemetery) in the newspaper reports of the time. Their youngest comrades in arms would have, by this time, been pensioners, and there is only a slight chance that they would have been known or remembered personally by the few remaining ex-Royal Marines Light Infantry of the 4th Battalion who were still alive in 1964.


1989: The Deal Barracks Bombing

Image:Hamilton Road Cemetery Royal Marines Bandsmen.jpg, Graves of Royal Marines Bandsmen killed by the IRA in 1989 Image:The Gravestone of Christopher Robert Nolan.jpg, The Gravestone of Christopher Robert Nolan Image:The Gravestone of Dean Patrick Pavey.jpg, The Gravestone of Dean Patrick Pavey Image:The Gravestone of Mark Timothy Petch.jpg, The Gravestone of Mark Timothy Petch There were no new military interments in the Hamilton Road cemetery after the end of World War II, and it returned to its original role as a municipal facility. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission continued to maintain the military plots of friend and foe alike; the grass was neatly cut, the Portland stone scrubbed clean, but the cemetery's honoured dead were beginning to fade into memory. Where Allenby once stood, the local papers now chronicled troublesome teenagers causing a nuisance late at night. This all changed in 1989, in the
Deal barracks bombing The Deal barracks bombing was an attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on the Royal Marine Depot, Deal, England. It took place at 8:22 am on 22 September 1989, when the IRA exploded a time bomb at the Royal Marines School of Mus ...
. Three of the eleven Bandsmen killed by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
were subsequently buried in the Hamilton Road cemetery, the first military burials in some forty-two years. They were: # Musician Christopher Robert Nolan, service number PO37119V, aged just 21. # Band Corporal Dean Patrick Pavey, service number PO32835W, aged 31. # Musician Mark Timothy Petch, service number PO36893W, aged 26. Both Band Corporal Pavey and Musician Petch died in the explosion, whereas Robert Nolan died on his wounds some twenty-six days later on 18 October 1989. Their graves are located are in the area of the cemetery managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the same section as the majority of the cemetery's World War II casualties, in a place of honour. Even today, some twenty-one years after the event, flowers are still to be found on their graves.


Hamilton Road Cemetery today

For the last twenty-one years, there have been no new military interments, and today the cemetery is still in use. The older public graves, especially those from the 19th century are in an increasingly poor state of repair; many gravestones are wrapped in hazard tape, others tilt at alarming angles, some headstones and crosses lie snapped at their base, and others have been pushed over and lie on the earth in the name of Health and Safety. One sturdier grave even sees use as a workbench for contractors cutting tree branches. Most of the civilian war graves from 1940 to 1945 are in poor repair with a few exceptions, and the inscriptions on these are becoming almost impossible to read. There seems little chance that this will change anytime soon.


References

Sources * * * ** Military war dead. ** Civilian war dead. * * * * An online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. * ** ** Thanks also to Dover District Council. Press coverage * * * * *


External links


British Pathe footage of Events surrounding the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918

British Pathe footage of mass burial of casualties from the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918. This took place in Dover, most probably in 1918, and the burial in St James's Cemetery in Dover. The mass burial was covered by a Cross of Sacrifice which commemorates nine known and fifteen unknown casualties of the raid.

British Pathe footage of the evacuation of Dunkirk

British Pathe footage of the launch of HMS Greyhound in 1931

British Pathe footage of the last moments of the S.S.Bismarck

British Pathe footage of the HMS Hood

British Pathe footage of the German air attacks on the Deal and Dover area

British Pathe footage of Viscount Allenby

British Pathe footage of the ATS

British Pathe footage of the ARP

British Pathe footage of the NFS
{{Cemeteries in England Cemeteries in Kent British military memorials and cemeteries 1856 establishments in England Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England