Paying tribute: firefighters from Beckenham at the special service held at West Wickham
A remembrance service to commemorate the 85th anniversary of five firefighters who were killed in The Blitz has been held at St John’s Church in West Wickham.
Firefighters from Blue Watch, based at Beckenham Fire Station, renovated the graveyard and gravestones in the churchyard ahead of the service.
Former Bromley firefighter, Thomas Webb, told his nephew Geoff Cowling about The Blitz and the devastating call out – where the fire engine Webb was following into London was hit by a bomb on Plaistow Road. All five of his colleagues were killed.
Cowling said: “Uncle Tom had been in the fire appliance immediately behind the five firemen when it received a direct hit, killing them all. On visiting the graveyard back in 1999, my uncle found it a very emotional experience. Standing at the graveside, my uncle said it was the closest he’d been to them since that fateful day.
“Undeniably, witnessing their deaths haunted Tom for the remainder of his life. They were first and foremost his mates.
Grave story: firefighters based at Beckenham helped with restoration work on the 1941 memorial to the five men killed in one raid in the Blitz
“Uncle Tom told me that when the Brigade first received calls to head to London, at the start of the Blitz, the fire engine drivers from Bromley and Beckenham did not know the way. They had never been from Kent to London before.
West Wickham was just a village.
“It says so much that as inexperienced volunteer village firefighters, they willingly drove into a deadly, terrifying furnace in the heart of London.
“My uncle’s role was to link the fire appliances via pumps and hoses to sources of water. He said the Luftwaffe seemed to time their raids to low tides, making it difficult to set up a relay of pumps and lay hoses across beached barges, to reach the River Thames’ low water level.
“There is so much those brave firefighters have in common with today’s emergency services. As a society we should be grateful that, when faced with a situation where most of us are running away from danger, today’s emergency services retain the ethos of those five fallen firefighters and are prepared to head in the opposite direction.”
The five men killed in the Blitz air raid in 1941 and commemorated in the West Wickham churchyard are Stanley Short, Frderick W Moore, Leslie J Palmer, Dennis G Fitzgerald and Charles W Drew.
After a recent visit to the churchyard, Cowling approached Beckenham Fire Station to ask if they could help renovate it.
Solemn moments: the service was arranged for the 85th anniversary of the incident
Station Commander Stuart West from Beckenham Fire Station, said: “Blue Watch heard how the gravestones were in bad state of repair with faded stonework. Of course, the Watch were only too pleased to help restore the area.
“At the service, one of the congregation informed us that the wooden cross on the plinth had been constructed from timbers rescued from a Blitz-wrecked building.
“It’s really important to pay tribute to the firefighters that have been before us.
“It’s only natural we wanted to mark this important anniversary. For Blue Watch and I to pay our respects to the brave firefighters has been a real honour. They gave ‘their today’ for ‘our tomorrow’.
“We want to thank Geoff for inviting us and allowing us to be a part of this special occasion. Thanks also to Rev William Sharp for conducting the service. It was a wonderful day, and I am very proud we could be part of it.”
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