We Remember
Memories of Wilkinsons and War-Time North Shields
Harry Rose – Wartime Memories
I met Harry at the 2018 Local History Day event and after a really interesting chat, I asked him to write his memories down. He has. Thanks very much Harry! I was born on March 2nd 1935, so one can say that I was a child of the Depression. I cannot recall much of that...
Mary Gargett – Wilkinson’s Employee 1930s-1941
With many thanks for the following to Edwina Thewliss who contacted us regarding her mother Mary Gargett (1917-2014) via the North Shields Nostalgia Facebook group. Mary was employed at Wilkinson's from, we believe the 1930s up until the bomb destroyed the factory in...
The Ward Family
Many thanks to site visitor Kathleen Alderson who contributed the following: Obviously before I was born (1950) back in 1941, my aunt Lilian May Ward went to a photographer together with my cousins Lilian and Maureen Ward. She got her 6 week old daughter’s photograph...
Commemoration Event – Memories Book
As to be expected one or two things slipped our mind on a very busy evening. One was the Memories Book we placed at the back of the church. We really should've mentioned it more even though Terry did talk about it during his introduction. Anyway, a few eagle-eyed folk...
The Wears family – Stayed at home.
Olive Seddon (b1946) tells us... My mam (Sarah Ann Wears (Bertram)) used to go into Wilkinson's shelter. The night it was bombed she was under the stairs at home with my nana (Edith Wears) and my sister Ann. My nana used to go under the stairs as she was scared of the...
Frankland Family – Maureen Rumfitt
Blame it on the Internet goblins but Maureen's original contribution from way back in 2004 just disappeared into the ether. Happily Maureen's been back in touch and we can restore her info, originally published in The Journal (2/7/2004). Thanks Maureen. Maureen...
Further Shelter Memories
The contributions below have been recently collected from various local Facebook groups. Eileen Collins Elliott My Mam and sister were going to go there that night she changed her mind at the last minute because my sister had been throwing up so they went in the...
Bill Atkinson recalls the Glynn Family
The guests at my parents wedding. The little lady on the left (as we look at it) of the front row is Ann Glynn. Aunty Ann lost her husband, daughter and mother in the shelter. She spent the rest of her life living at 66 North King Street , as did her daughter Annie....
Emily Meek nee Brooks – Shelter Memories
Emily Brooks was 12 at the time of the Wilkinson's bombing. She went to Linskill School. With her mother, sister and brother, she was a regular user of the basement air raid shelter. The shelter warden, Mrs Lee was her aunt. Emily remembers using the shelter almost...
James Robert Ward memory
We are indebted to Philip Pattinson and his family for permission to publish the following extract from James Robert Ward's unpublished memoir "The Low Street Boy". Mr Ward lost two cousins and a half-sister in the bombing disaster. Elizabeth Lindores Donkin,...
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...
Nora Sturrock
Dear Sir Have just found your interesting web site . The photo is of my parents George & Nora Sturrock taken in Northumberland Square. Reading about my Mother and Father, George and Nora Sturrock , I note it is said that Sandy & Arthur Frankland were her...
Brenda Brown (Hunter) remembers the bombing of Albert Edward Dock
I was about 8yrs old and had returned from being evacuated, for a weeks holiday, to Hope Cottage. A.E.Dock. There was a very bad air raid and we sheltered in the cellar. When we came out the next morning, there was a big crater where the bomb had dropped, just missing...
Lily Holmes remembers Elizabeth Lindores Donkin and Maureen Ward
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...
Mrs Oliver – Alice Nicholson and the accordion player identified?
Mrs Oliver's grandmother Alice Nicholson survived at Wilkinson's. She was saved because a door fell on her and sheltered her from the falling masonry. She was showered with money from a till from the factory which fell on her lap. Her mother used the shelter regularly...
Mrs Heslop – Mother Survived
Mrs Heslop's mother survived the bombing of Wilkinson's shelter. She spent 5 hours in the shelter in the section where the children normally went. She recalls seeing her mother coming home to the back door of the house in a terrible state, covered in soot and brick...
Mrs Tennison – the loss of relatives, the Harmans
Mrs Tennison lost her sister in law, Mary Ellen Harman and her 3 children. Mrs Tennison was in the WRAF and was home on leave that night. Apparently Mary Ellen (Nellie) and the children had started off for the shelter but changed their minds and had tried to go back...
Mr Sidney Hodgson – loss of sister and relatives
Mr Hodgson was a firewatcher in North Shields. He had been out dancing and walked his sisters along to the shelter and then went on to his own house. He lost his sister, sister in law and her children.
Mr Henderson – loss of grandparents
Mr Henderson lost his grandfather and grandmother: James Henderson MN 83 and Phyllis Henderson MN 91. For some reason his family did not go to Wilkinson's that night as they usually did. He recalls possibly being at the Boro cinema instead to watch Laurel and Hardy....
Millie Moore – loss of sister in law and children
Mrs Millie Moore lost her father's brother, wife and children: the Mavins. Mrs Moore identified the bodies. [Correction: Marguerite Ada Mavin writes that it was in fact Millie Moore's sister in law and her children who died]
Joan Robson (Survivor) – loss of Germaine family members
Mrs Joan Robson: survivor aged 14 One of only 5 people who survived from the central section of the Shelter. Everyone in the rear section (Smoking area) died. She survived with her mother but lost her father, 2 sisters, brother and family friends. (Ethel Germain MN...
Mr Lough (survivor) – loss of father and sister
Mr Lough: survivor aged 8 Lost his father (William Lough MN 38) and sister (Margaret MN 32) at Wilkinson's. He recalls being very nervous during air raids. That night he was trying to sleep in a top bunk when the bomb hit. He remembers being almost suspended in mid...
Haydon Sharp – loss of Edith Phillips
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...
Kathleen Parkin – Wilkinson labels and debris
I was a child of six on that night. I went with my mother and brother aged 7 to the Boro Cinema in North Shields. Through the middle of the show we heard muffled explosions, but someone said it was breaking bottles, so we just continued to watch the film which was...
Jennie Ford – Helping the Survivors
"I am 92 years old now. At the time we lived quite near the shelter. My mother, Mrs M Forrest was a volunteer and was on duty that night when the bomb fell on Wilkinson's shelter. Her station that time was at Northumberland Street Mission. She went to the shelter and...
Henry P Rose – loss of Sandy Frankland
I was six years old in the March of that year and my father came home on leave in the May, just in time for the bombing. When the sirens went we went to our own shelter which was in the yard. Father was not happy with this because he felt that we were too near the...
Rose Graham nee Nutman – Acid Burn Victims
Rose was a 22 year old nurse working at Hexham Hospital. She recalls many survivors being brought in by ambulance, most of them with horrific acid burns caused by the chemicals used in the factory. She and other medical staff worked for days in treating the injured....
Lilian Fraser (nee Reaveley) – relation survived
"My grandfather's brother was in the explosion at Wilkinson's and was supposedly blown through the roof with the blast. He was very badly disfigured and was henceforth in and out of Preston Hospital. His name was Robert Reaveley..." Lilian needs more info about...
Karen Robinson (Wellington, New Zealand) – family survived Wilkinson’s
Karen kindly provided the following account after visiting the website. My Dad, Dennis Lewis Watson was a survivor of the bombing of the factory along with his mother Ellen Watson and, sister Maureen. Dad lived in Reed Street, North Shields. Dad was 3 years old at the...
Mary Harrison (Canadian Consulate General) – loss of the Chaters
Mary kindly provided the following account after visiting the website. Let me try to put some thoughts down about life in North Shields during the war. I was born in North Shields, an only child, my parents were Jane Henighan (nee Turner) and Joseph Henighan. My...
Mrs Lorrison – a lucky escape!
I was 13 at the time and we lived at 23 King Street: Wilkinson's was just over the road. We used the shelter often but very luckily not that night. My father was in an exempt occupation - he worked for the gas company. I remember he told my mother that if there was a...
Mr. T.R. Hall – Auxiliary Fireman
Before going on duty as a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service I had been paying a visit to a relation in Linskill Terrace, North Shields. On cycling to my station in Percy Main where we had commandeered the St. John Ambulance hut, I heard what I took to be a bomb....
Mrs Marshall: nee Sanderson (Survivor) – eye witness, loss of brother
I was 13 then. I was dragged to the shelter every time. I couldn't get out of bed. I was a lazy girl. Me mother...used to stand over me, pull the clothes off and at the finish used to say, 'I'm going out for the Polis'. And he used to yank me out. He used to say...
Emma Chapman – loss of 7 family members
I lost 7 members of my family that night at Wilkinson's. I was 23 at the time. I lived at 24 Hylton Street and during raids I would often use my mother's brick shelter at her house in Little Bedford Street. Fortunately, I never used the Wilkinson's shelter. My...
Georgina Rose – loss of cousin, father was ARP warden
pictured above: Redvers Rose - ARP Warden Dad (Redvers James Rose) was born November 28, 1900. He was in the Royal Navy as a boy of 16 in World War I. Before that he was on the trawlers at 14 with his father. He served most of his life in the Merchant Navy. Owing to...
Ethel May Shaw – Tragic loss of aunt and her 5 children (the Halls)
I was aged 14 and was at home with my mother Maria Binks and sister Sheila (17 years) and baby brother Jimmy (18 months). When the sirens went off and mother tried to get us off to the shelter, Sheila wouldn't get up out of bed and said she wouldn't go to Willkinson's...
Mildred Cook (survivor) – eye-witness, loss of relatives
I was Mildred Cook then. We, me sister aged 5, me brother 7, and I was 14...we had to go up and stay with me mother's twin sisters in Queen Street, while me mother was away. We stayed in Queen Street, the next street to where the bomb was. My mother and I didn't...
Albert Lee (Survivor) – son of shelter warden
Albert Lee aged 17 was in the shelter and survived the disaster. "My mother (Ellen Lee) was the ARP warden in charge of Wilkinson's air raid shelter. So, naturally we used the shelter every time there was a raid on. That night I was in the shelter with Hilda, my...
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