Local School Teacher Killed in Bombing Raid
Jean Thurston, a retired Whitley Bay school teacher contacted us with the story of Doris Ewbank who was killed in a bombing raid on North Shields, 3 weeks before the Wilkinson's disaster.
Doris Ewbank, who taught at Backworth Infants School, was killed on April 10, 1941 at the former Preston Hospital in North Shields while driving an ambulance for the Voluntary Aid Detachment.
28 year old Doris, an infant school teacher at Backworth School had joined the Whitley Bay ambulance service as a voluntary worker.
The night of April 10th 1941 suffered one of the worst bombing raids on North Shields during the war. That evening Doris had volunteered to take an ambulance to North Shields.
Jean Thurston holding rescued tribute photo of Doris Ewbank
which was displayed for many years at Backworth Infants School
At Holmlands, a home for the elderly attached to Preston Hospital, her ambulance was hit by a bomb and she was killed instantly.
Doris was the only child of J. and Verina Mary Ewbank of 12 Brundon Avenue, Monkseaton. Mrs Ewbank, who died in 1988 aged 101, had a memorial plaque to her daughter erected at the Panama Gardens in Whitley Bay. There is also now a plaque to Doris at St Mary's Church in the town.
For many years after Remembrance Sunday, Mrs Thurston had taken her pupils at Coquet Park First School to look at the War Memorial on the Links and then on to the Panama Gardens. Mrs Thurston was given the photograph of Doris by a caretaker at Backworth Infants after she made an appeal in the News Guardian in 1991.
Mrs Thurston said: "I've had the photo for some time and it seemed like a good idea to put it on the website for everyone to see. Doris was a remarkable woman who taught children all day and then risked her life driving an ambulance at night.
My mother worked at Backworth Infants after Doris died and she said the photograph was hung on a wall, and children laid flowers around it. It's been hard finding information about Doris because the newspapers never reported her death, for fear of scaring the public. Doris was a brave young lady, she lived in Whitley Bay, serving our community and is surely one of our local heroines."
North Shields Central Library, Local Studies Department has photos of the bomb damage at Holmlands. A wrecked vehicle, presumably that of the ambulance driven by Doris can be seen. Please ask for photos: 15219 | 15218 | 15213 | 15209