On 15th November Coventry smoldered
from the intense attack the night before but the attack was not renewed. The Luftwaffe returned to London with the docks
high on the list of targets.
I have not been able to find an account of
what happened in Silvertown that night but this photo shows the aftermath:
Seemingly taken several years later (one
source says 1944) it shows Parker Street, looking north to the Royal Victoria
Dock. The gap on the right hand side
seems to be the site of cleared buildings that had been bombed.
Today, we might be more familiar with the
view looking back towards the wartime cameraman from the docks, which now form
London City Airport:
Planes are visible at the bottom of the
photo, with the DLR railway station in the centre; just above that and to the
right is the silver-coloured school building, and Parker Road runs to the right
of the school and playground as we look at it.
The proximity in wartime to factories at the top of the photo, as well
as the dock (now airport) are obvious.
This photo was taken by a Luftwaffe reconnaissance flight on 29th
October, seventeen days before the bombing:
Factories and the dock facility are marked
as targets.
The CWGC register of civilian war dead
shows two people died in Parker Road that night and it seems likely a third
person was fatally injured:
Annie
Louisa Kerr died at 5 Parker Street, aged 35. She was probably born Hannah Louisa Moles in
1905 in Silvertown and in 1911 she was living with her family in Silvertown
where her father, Jim, was a general labourer in a rubber works. She was known as Louisa and the family of
seven lived in a three room house at 49 Andrew Street. (Andrew Street may have partly disappeared
under Silvertown Way but the remnant could be renamed Camel Street. The area seems to have been popular with
people moving from Ireland and one branch of the Moles family is found in that
country).
By 1940 her parents lived in Woodford,
about 7 miles north. She was the wife of
Walter E Kerr (probably Walter Edward Kerr born 1902). They had been married 17 years and probably
had two children Walter and Mary who would have been 15 and 14 at the time of
the bombing.
Walter, her husband subsequently married
Violet Moles, presumably a relative of Annie, four years later; and after the
war they lived in the same street as Annie’s parents. Walter died on 25th September
1948.
Elizabeth
Maycock aged 75 and a widow died next door to Annie
at Number 7. CWGC only gives her
husband’s first initial, J. The 1901
Census shows John and Elizabeth Maycock living at 37 Ashburton Road, just the
other side of the Royal Albert Dock, with their baby Alfred and adopted son
Edward Booseby (born 1898). John was 54,
his wife’s age was said to be 36. Sadly
baby Alfred died shortly after the Census.)
They had been married on Christmas Day
1895, John was a widower (and the son of a soldier), while Elizabeth was a spinster
aged around 35. She was born Elizabeth
Poolten but when her mother remarried she seems to have used her stepfather’s
surname, Morris, for some time. She may
have been born in Mauritius in 1861 although the 1901 Census says she was born
in Cape Town, South Africa; the family travelled around, younger siblings
having been born in Gibraltar.
The CWGC record shows Elizabeth Larn died at Royal Albert Dock Hospital on the same day
and her home address was 9 Parker Street; it seems reasonable to presume she
was injured at home and died in hospital.
She was born Elizabeth Benmore on 9th December 1899 in Poplar. In the 1901 Census the family lived at 5
West Street, Poplar, in the parish of All Saints, and her father’s occupation
was general labourer.
The 1911 Census entry is unusual because
Elizabeth lived at 1 Oak Road, Canning Town with her mother and 4 siblings;
there is no mention of her father but further investigation shows him
registered at 5 Oak Road with 7 others!
Her mother died in 1916 and her father (by
then a ship’s fireman) died of pleurisy and pneumonia one year later. On his death certificate Elizabeth was given
as the informant and they were living at 41 Anne Street, Plaistow.
She married Thomas R Larn in 1921, and they
had eight children: Thomas Charles (1921-1949); Thomas J b 1922; twins Doris
and Winifred (1923-1923); Rosina b 1924; Frederick J b 1926; Sidney Alfred (1927-1978);
and Irene E (1931-1932).
While I could not find an eye witness
account of this particular riad, this is the story of one resident of Parker
Street:
Note he refers to a bomb which deafened one
of his sisters, and another sister almost falling into a bomb crater; these may
have been the 15th November attack.
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