Mrs Holmes, whose aunt Elizabeth Lindores Donkin died in the bombing contacted us with the following...
These are a few lines about my aunt Lizzie, a victim of the Wilkinson's bomb
disaster on May 3rd 1941 as told to me by my mother and her brother Sid.
She was married to a soldier called William Donkin and had a young baby
Elizabeth Ann. They lived at the Pontin buildings around the corner from the
shelter. William had just gone back to the army after being on leave. Auntie Lizzie, as we knew her, had her sister-in-law Lily Ward staying with her that weekend and Lily's children, young Lily and Maureen who was a six month old baby.
My mother's other brother Freddy should have been staying with her too but
because of Lily and her family staying, Freddy was told not to go (luckily
for him, as he also could have been a victim). He sadly passed over two years
ago.
But when the siren went Lizzie, Lily and the children went into the shelter.
A witness account said that Lizzie was sitting with the baby on her knee and when she started crying, Lizzie began to walk back and forth so she gave up her seat to an old lady.
After the bomb fell and the surviors came out, Lily Ward and her oldest child, Lily, were among them but sadly Lizzie and her daughter Ann and baby Maureen were killed. Ironically the old lady to whom she gave up her seat, survived.
Sid, a 12 year old paper boy at the time was the one who told his mother
about the tragedy. The whole family watched as they brought the bodies out and took them to the make-shift morgue at the old wash house buildings.
It was the sad duty of Ozzie, Lizzie's younger brother to indentify her body
and her mother indentified baby Ann. Maureen was indentified by her father William Ward, but she was only recognizable by the dress she was wearing which had been given to her by Auntie Lizzie.
Her husband William was given compasionate leave for the funeral. Her younger brother Ozzie was lost at sea two years later in the Atlantic Crossing.
I feel proud and privileged to have been asked to write this small dedication to an aunt that I never knew, but did in a way. Her memory was kept alive by my mother who was her only sister. Now with her name in print she will be remembered always."