Welcome to our website
At 11.12 pm on Saturday May 3rd 1941 the Air Raid Alert sounded over North Shields. Locals hurried as usual to the air raid shelter beneath Wilkinson's lemonade factory. At midnight, a single bomb from a lone German raider scored a direct hit on the three storey building. Walls, machinery and debris collapsed into the shelter. 107 people, 41 of them children under 16, were killed. It was the worst bombing incident in North East England during World War II.
Robert Westall, the award-winning author of The Machine Gunners, was a North Shields schoolboy at the time. His father was an ARP warden in the town. Westall used his wartime experiences as a backdrop to many of his novels. Westall's War explores the Wilkinson's disaster using quotations from the novels to introduce archival material held by Tyne and Wear Archives Services..
It is now over sixty years since the disaster and many of those whom we originally interviewed for this site have passed on. The story of Wilkinson's is still unfinished. We would like to hear from anyone (survivor, family, friend, local resident) with a connection to the Wilkinson's bombing - we need to hear your stories. This site is a tribute to those who lived through the disaster and a memorial to those who lost their lives.
- About Robert Westall
- Air Raid Story
- In Memoriam
- A-Z Listing of Victims
- Database
- Database: Age Search
- Database: Shockwave
- Learn More...
- Luftwaffe Stadtplan
- Tynemouth Bomb Map
- Luftwaffe Pilot's View
- Luftwaffe Aerial Photo
- Shields Evening News
- Town Clerk's Report
- Raids Elsewhere
- Photos and Film Footage
- Official Air Raid Figures
- After the Raid
- Air Raid Warden's Report
- Mr Barron's Damaged Dentures
- Mortuary Form: Luftwaffe Pilot
- Death of a Merchant Seaman
- Home Guard
- Church Bells: Invasion Warning
- Four Pigs Puzzle
- Salute the Soldiers
Photos
children at the bomb site
site clearance
heavy squad clearing the site
shelter entrance (bottom right)
Comments
I remember that night the bomb was dropped on the Wilkinson factory. I lived in Grey Street. My aunt was an
• john howes:
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With three of my siblings I was evacuated during the war to Rothbury. Three older children remained to work or attend s
• R. Peter Soderquest:
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dear Ms MAVIN after readind your reminiscence on the Wilkinsons tsheltertragedy we are related somewhere down the line
• winifred trotter:
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I knew Robert Westall well. His son Chris was my pillion passenger to work everyday until his death. The family were gen
• PeterHardy:
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I live at Linskill Terrace and whilst renovating my property 2 years ago I found a clear glass bottle,inscribed"north s
• Mrs Julia Reilly:
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Robert Taught me at SJDGS - hopeless as i was at Art. Remember him though as a very real man - made an impression.......
• Trevor Moss:
read entry
the sites quite good and you can almost imagine being there in Wilkinsons!
• stephany:
read entry
I would of hated to be arond in worldwar2 i would like to know what it was like.Im doing reasearch for my school it is b
• demi:
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Some people think that the internet is just for fun but as this wonderful site proves, it can be used for so much more.
Newcastle Journal
...a fascinating study that puts the horror of war on a very human scale
BBC Online Best of the Web Guide
This brilliant site...
Imperial War Museum
It is excellent and perfect for use in schools. I am really impressed by the organisation and information offered by the site. Superb.
Andrew Field: schoolhistory.co.uk
Seriously impressed by your website: will enhance my teaching no end...
David Williams: English Co-ordinator, Bothal Middle School
BECTA Guardian Website Awards 2002
Shortlisted Final 10
Recent news
19.01.2010
19.01.2010
Hodgson Family Victims
Greatly indebted to Neil Hodgson son of Sidney Hodgson for the following information and photographs. Reproduced with his permission.
This photograph shows Henry Henderson Hodgson in his uniform, standing with his wife Alexina (sitting) his daughter (Elizabeth) and son (Henry Henderson). As you can see from the photo their ages must relate closely to the time of their death. I think that given the fact my father had a copy of this photo, it may have been the last photo taken of the family together as a family, and the fact that Henry is in uniform may make its date very close to that of the Air Raid.
Continue reading "Hodgson Family Victims"
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News
15.01.2010
15.01.2010
North Shields - The Bombing of a Town
Available from local bookshops (Keel Row) and libraries ...at £9.99
82 year old Ron Curran's recently published North Shields - The Bombing of a Town includes several pages on the Wilkinson's tragedy. Ron was 12 years old when the war started. He recalls....
"My mother, Winifred, used to work in a factory beside the Fish Quay. Whenever there was an air raid alert, they would go inside the Wilkinson shelter. But on this particular day in May 1941, they walked all the way home when the bombing started.
We found out later that the factory was hit and more than 100 people had died. My mother could have been there. She was saved because she did not go into the shelter that day. The following day we went to look at the wreckage. It was appalling. We were being kept away and I remember looking at the scene through someone's locked arms.
There were a lot of people around, including the Home Guard, and everyone was just silent as the bodies were brought out. There was a terrible loss of life."
The book is a welcome addition to the local history of the town, although there are some issues with the number of dead reported at Wilkinsons. It's a good read and well illustrated.
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21.08.2009
21.08.2009
Was Wilkinson's Basement Shelter Overcrowded?
I spent a day sifting through documents and minute books at the rather wonderful Tyne and Wear Archives Service in Newcastle yesterday...I need to get back to do a more thorough trawl as there is still some outstanding source material.
Below - some notes relating to Wilkinson's taken from Tynemouth's Emergency Committee meeting minutes. There is one interesting resolution therein following the disaster on May 3/4 1941. Otherwise the Minutes are somewhat unsubtantial.
My observations...
1) There is the sense of censorship above and beyond what would be normal in any offical minutes. For example, in the meetings immediately after the disaster, the Shelter (i.e. Wilkinsons) is never named...it is on several occasions in earlier minutes.
2) Eyebrows may be raised at one of the Committee resolutions immediately after the bombing which is to remove 50% of bunks in all public air raid shelters.
Did the Committee fear that overcrowding contributed to the large scale loss of life?
According to reports 192 people were in the shelter at the time of the raid. The Home Office has allowed a maximum occupancy of 188 persons. But why the focus on the bunks? Did bunk provision (one per occupant or more?) actually severely limit the space in the Shelter? Why do the Committee ask for guidance from the Home Office on the number of bunks deemed essential in a public air raid shelter?
3) There is no explicit after the event recognition that Wilkinsons was inherently a dangerous location to house a public air raid shelter - no mention is made of the number of deaths caused by factory machinery, chemicals and glass falling from the upper levels of this Victorian building. What was said un-minuted of course we are unlikely to know.
4) It would be very useful to know what precisely the Chief Constable said in his report the day after the bombing. No details are given in the minutes.
I'll reflect on this over the next few weeks. Of course, one could expect reticence and the line being toe-ed in official minutes. What is strange though is the unemotional and almost distanced tone and content. Committee members will surely have known that they have lived through one of the worst air raid disasters in WWII to date.
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Wilkinson's Lemonade Factory
Weblinks
Contacts
Tyne and Wear Archives Service
Peter Hepplewhite
peterhepplewhite@gateshead.gov.uk
www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk
T: 0191 232 6789
Website - ictGateshead
Peter Bolger
pbolger@ictgateshead.org
www.ictgateshead.org
0191 460 2900
