I was 13 at the time and I lost my friend (Edith Philips: aged 14: MN 14) at Wilkinsons. My uncle lived next door to the factory. He suffered from Parkinson's Disease and always used the shelter when there was a raid on. For some reason though, he didn't go that night. It saved his life. We lived in Linskill Street and that night I was standing with my father at the front door watching the 'fireworks' (ie the raid, searchlights, flak etc).
that night I was standing with my father at the front door watching the 'fireworks'...
My father used to work on a dredger on the Tyne and I was wearing a soldier's tin hat he had dredged up from the river. After the bomb hit a policeman came up the street holding a little girl by the hand. He asked us to take her into the house. She was in a right state. When my mother undressed her she was covered from head to toe in soot and brick dust. I remember that later, me, Dolly and Jenny Taylor took the girl along to the Hope Inn where we had been told her Aunt lived. The next morning we went up to see the bomb site. It was cordoned off. A group of miners wanted to help clear the rubble but the Rescue people wouldn't let them. The atmosphere was very tense.
Was this little girl the same one mentioned by several people, who was blown from the doorway of Wilkinson's into a pub doorway over the street? Was she called Alice Sutherst? If you know..please contact us.
photo: Mr Haydon Sharp as Batallion Drum Major (at front), aged 15, Tynemouth c1943