On 24 Nov 2010 at 17:22, Josephine Jeremiah wrote: > Tonight is the 70th anniversary of the first Bristol Blitz of > 24th-25th November 1940. > > Childhood memories of that terrifying night are to be found on this > Bristol Evening Post web page: > > http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/AWESOME-SCARY/article-2929399-deta > il/article.html > > Josephine > Ten days earlier, on November 14 1940, Hitler's Luftwaffe had devastated Coventry. Coventry has already marked its own 70th anniversary. Two people dear to me went through that awful night when most of the city centre, including the Cathedral and thousands of homes, were destroyed and over 1200 people killed. They were my wife and her mother - and when I say both went through it I mean "sort of", since my wife was born just four weeks later! Not only did my mother-in-law survive that blitz and other later ones on Coventry, she will be celebrating her one-hundredth birthday in early January. I wonder if anyone knows of any living centenarians who survived the Bristol blitz and Hitler's bombers? -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE

On Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:28:43 -0000, Roy Stockdill <roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> wrote: > Ten days earlier, on November 14 1940, Hitler's Luftwaffe had devastated > Coventry. Coventry has already marked its own 70th anniversary. Hi Roy, I saw the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Coventry Blitz on the news, earlier this month, and I was thinking, when I saw it, that the first Bristol Blitz was to follow just 10 days later > Two people dear to me went through that awful night when most of the > city centre, including the Cathedral and thousands of homes, were > destroyed and over 1200 people killed. > Not only did my mother-in-law survive that blitz and other later ones on > Coventry, she will be celebrating her one-hundredth birthday in early > January. How marvellous to have lived through both the wars and to have reached such a great age. I expect that, during the Coventry Blitz of November 1940, your mother-in-law was wondering whether she would survive the night. It must have been particularly horrendous for her being heavily pregnant. > I wonder if anyone knows of any living centenarians who survived the > Bristol blitz and Hitler's bombers? Most of my family who lived through the Bristol Blitz are now gone, but a few years ago my aunt told me that in 1940 she worked in Cock and Bottle Lane off Castle Street and, like many others, worked a half day on Saturdays. The day before the first Bristol Blitz was a Saturday and my aunt told me that on her way home from working her half day, she had seen a delivery being made to one of the big shops in Castle Street. Huge round cheeses were being delivered plus large slabs of cake. All that food was never to be eaten as it must have been destroyed in the night of sheer hell that was to come.! I think it said in the news about the Coventry Blitz that people still turned up for work the next day, but found their city in ruins. So it was in Bristol, on Monday 25th November 1940, after a terrible night, people didn't stay home, but came in to work, as usual, the next day. That Monday morning, my aunt saw that Castle Street was destroyed and she noticed what she thought were cats darting about the rubble. After a closer look she realized that they were big rats! I've told this tale before, so I hope list members will forgive me repeating myself, but it's one that will stay in my memory. Josephine -- Josephine Jeremiah www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com