Having declared that his greatest fear was that the western ports of Liverpool and Glasgow might be disrupted, Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the City of Liverpool on 25th April 1941, just days before the most intense week of Luftwaffe bombing began.
Churchill understood that Liverpool was Britain’s lifeline; her strongest connection with the free world. The Battle of the Atlantic was coordinated from the Combined Operations Headquarters at Derby House, Liverpool. Essential civilian and military supplies were brought into Liverpool through the convoy system, and the entire Mersey waterfront was vitally important for naval repairs and shipbuilding. For these reasons, Liverpool was a primary target for the German bombers and Churchill was keen to boost the morale of the war weary Liverpudlian people.
In May 1941, Winston Churchill famously said of Liverpool
“I see the damage done by the enemy attacks, but I also see the spirit of an unconquered people.“
Mill Road Hospital was originally built by the West Derby Union Board of Guardians as a workhouse for the sick and poor, but by 1891 it had been renamed Mill Road Infirmary. It remained a general hospital until the Second World War when during the Blitz it was vital in treating those injured in the bombing raids across the city.
Photograph courtesy of Liverpool Records OfficePhotograph courtesy of Liverpool Records Office
On 3rd May 1941 the hospital itself fell victim to the german bombing. The maternity ward was hit killing many mothers and their new babies…
Alice Rafferty, 26, wife of Francis Rafferty was killed along with her 2 day old daughter Joan.
Amy Lilian Davies, daughter of William Davies of 54 Gaerwen Street, was killed aged 21 along with her 1 day old son Brian.
Hugh Knox of West Derby lost his wife Grace, 25, and his son Hugh, aged 7 days, when the bomb landed on the Hospital.
Charles and Mary O’Brien were told their daughter Norah, 27, and their grandson John, just 3 days old, had both been killed at Mill Road.
Private Lawrence Foy of the Pioneer Corps lost his wife Edith at the tender age of 23, along with his newborn son, Lawrence.
At just 19 years of age, Joyce Honour Bell lost her life along with her 7 day old baby Susan.
Photograph courtesy of Liverpool Records Office
The ward adjacent was full of wounded soldiers, but amazingly none of them were hurt. A number of medics and nurses were reportedly killed whilst operating on a man who miraculously survived. Several drivers were killed in the ambulance room, along with many other members of staff and patients. Three of the ward blocks were totally destroyed.
Photograph courtesy of Liverpool Records Office
The building was declared unsafe after the bombing and Mill Road patients had to be transferred to Broadgreen Hospital where 610 beds were made available. An untiring effort was made to rescue survivors and one nurse was found alive after 12 hours. Then the grim task of bringing out the dead began. It became clear that several of the bodies could not be recovered and so military soldiers were brought in to fill the area in question with lime cement. Approximately 80 people were killed at Mill Road in May 1941, although the true figure is likely much higher.
Leonard Findlay had been appointed Hospital Superintendent in 1937. He received the George Medal for bravery during the German Air Raids on Liverpool in May 1941.
Gertrude Riding started work at Mill Road in 1910 and was Matron for 21 years until her retirement in 1948. After the raid in question she is said to have worked tirelessly to rescue an Auxiliary Nurse and a Chaplain who had been trapped beneath the debris, despite having injured her eye which she later lost. Gertrude was awarded the OBE for her services during the war.
Many thanks go to Anthony Hogan for his major contribution to this article. His website is a fantastic resource for anybody interested in learning more about what life was like in Liverpool during the Blitz… http://liverpoolremembrance.weebly.com/
Note from the Liverpool Blitz 70! Event Organisers:
The term “celebration” does not sit comfortably with the Organisers of the Liverpool Blitz 70 event. Learning of this tragic loss of life at Mill Road Hospital makes clear in one’s mind the importance of quiet reflection and tribute to those who were killed long before their time 70 years ago. However, the spirit of selflessness in a time of crisis and panic demonstrated by Gertrude Riding and Leonard Finlay is very deserving of celebration. We the British people are still very keen and capable of this willingness to put others before ourselves when they are in need of help… we all heard similar stories of selflessness quite recently in the aftermath of the July bombings of 2005.
The “Blitz Spirit” is a term coined during an era when there was much opportunity amidst the devastation for British people to help one another and demonstrate what defiant stuff we are made of, but it still applies today. Time is all that separates us from the people talked about in stories and anecdotes from the Home Front in 1941… they were just like you and I, going about their day to day business and trying to make the best of every situation. Let us be inspired by their courage and generosity to each other.
Joan Jackson lived on Raffles Road, Birkenhead with her parents and younger sister when war was declared in 1939. She has very kindly shared her memories of the Blitz with us…
Joan Jackson and D-Day veteran, Deryck Fairhurst, at Normandy with D-Day Revisited June 2009
“We had numerous bombing raids over Merseyside, but the first one I remember was in 1940 around Christmas. I would have been 16 years old at the time. One day, after tea my mother had decided to ice and decorate some christmas cakes (she was a confectioner), when suddenly the air raid siren started to wail. We all made our way to the air raid shelter in the back garden. My parents had made it quite comfortable with a mattress on bricks, cups and saucers, biscuits, candles, torches and games… it had to be relatively comfortable as you never knew how long you’d have to spend in there!
As the war progressed we used the shelter more often and when the raids became more frequent we spent most nights in there. In early 1942 a huge raid was in progress and our road received a direct hit which destroyed several houses and seriously damaged many others, including ours. I remember my little sister was very distressed. It sounds silly now, but I distinctly recall saying to her, “Don’t cry Barbara, it’s only a bomb!”
The damage to our house proved beyond repair and the family was forced to split up. My parents went to Holt and I moved to Upton where I started my training to become a nurse.“
We are very pleased to introduce “Blitz and Peaces” who will be on the streets of Liverpool City Centre entertaining and educating visitors to our great city, leaving them feeling they have had a real opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of the home front!
The Blitz and Peaces team are incredibly enthusiastic about what they do and have been busy researching the historic details of Liverpool’s experience during the May Blitz in 1941 in preparation for our anniversary event. Dressed in various full WWII uniforms, they will no doubt capture the imagination of the young and trigger the memories of the old with their songs and stories about life in Britain on the Home Front.
When asked why they do what they do they said, “We all love the sense of triumphant human spirit over almost insurmountable odds to ‘keep the home fires burning’ and we all marvel at the ‘save the string’ and ‘make do and mend’ re-cycling drives that were in operation during the war years. This of course has subsequently come back into sharp focus as people realise the global importance of controlling our own waste and re-cycling used materials.
We love the ‘live for the moment, as who knows what tomorrow will bring’ ethic of people who volunteered to go in to combat in the armed services, and those thrust into danger on the home front from the bombing raids. Men and women putting life and limb at risk by joining fire services, rescue parties and medical teams, in order to pull together as a community and help their friends and neighbours during this time of peril.“
High waist lines, headscarves, vertical lines drawn with eye pencil down the back of the leg, carefully curled hair, long painted nails and red lipstick… in 1941 the bombs were falling, the city was burning but the women of Liverpool were going to work to do their bit and keeping their morale up (and everyone else’s) by looking their best!
However, with women being called up to work for the war effort in factories and fields, the style of clothes inevitably became more practical. So dawned the era of utility fashion. The government took over the control of all imported raw material including cloth. Utility clothing was produced towards the end of 1941 to aid the economy and help the war effort.
Clothes had to be designed and made from Government patterns so that the clothes were simple, plain and practical – and, most importantly, did not waste fabric. Garments were not allowed to have fancy pleats, hem allowances were minimal, and only a few functional fastenings were allowed as decoration. Many women wore their pre-war jewelery to accessories the plain utility garments and add a touch of individual style.
The Civilian Clothing 41 label was placed onto a garment to show it was made to conforms to the strict government clothing regulations.
Clothes were rationed during the war. In 1941 individuals were awarded just 66 points for clothing per year. By 1945 the amount of coupons per person was reduced to just 24! To give an idea of what this meant… in 1945, an overcoat (wool and fully lined) used 18 coupons; a man’s suit used approximately 28; men’s shoes 9, women’s shoes 7; woollen dress 11. Children aged 14–16 received 20 more coupons. Clothing rationing points could be used for wool, cotton and household textiles. People had extra points for work clothes, such as overalls for factory work.
As a result the government launched a “make do and mend” campaign. The aim was to encourage people to take good care of their clothes and mend them when they became worn, rather than throw them away and buy new ones.
Production of silk and nylon stockings ceased altogether in Britain in 1940. Materials were in short supply and silk was needed to make parachutes for the Armed Forces.
Due to the rarity of stockings, they were a desirable commodity and the small supply available on the black market were very highly sort after. When the american soldiers arrived in Britain they often used gifts such as stockings, which were in plentiful supply over the pond, to endear themselves to the local girls. However many women chose to use a variety of different methods to make their bare legs up to look like they wear wearing stockings…
Other fashion items which became popular on the home front were the wedge sole shoe, the turban, the siren suit and the kangaroo cloak. The turban equalised people of all classes. It began as a simple safety device to prevent the wearer’s hair entangling in factory machinery. It doubled as a disguise for unkempt hair which women had less time to attend to being so busy running homes, working and giving extra help wherever they could.
Women made the best of a bad situation and despite such drastic restrictions on clothing and fabric they made every effort to keep standards high, taking pride in their appearance as much as possible.
In the very early hours of November 29th 1940 a parachute mine landed on the Garston Gas Works. It was not known whether the mine or bomb in the 4,000,000 cubic feet holder tank was magnetic, acoustic, delayed action or just a plain “dud”. Therefore fearing it might detonate at any time, the authorities evacuated 6000 people living in the vicinity to escape what would have been an almost unimaginable explosion.
At 7.30am fitters, electricians, plumbers and others were at work disconnecting electrically driven blowers from other plants, rigging them into position on the holder tank and preparing the fire pump to draw water out. These high-risk tasks were carried out by willing volunteers. As the exact location of the mine was unknown, risks had to be taken. First the fans were started up and nothing happened, then the motor pump, and still no explosion. The men who had assembled the gear were withdrawn. The Liverpool Fire Brigade arrived and put a pump to work, the water was taken down 5’ 6” to uncover part of the “dumping”, a brick faced island inside the holder. This achieved, the air inside the holder tank was no longer considered explosive and means of access were considered.
Fans and pumps were stopped and the job was handed over to Lieutenant Newgass of the bomb disposal unit. Then aged 41, Newgass was a veteran of the Great War and hailed from London.
Donning oxygen apparatus which only lasted thirty minutes apiece, Lieutenant Newgass entered the holder tank. He lashed the parachute ring of the mine to the top of the pillar against which it was leaning, and passed a lashing round the nose. Unfortunately the fuse was facing the pillar so a special hoisting lug was affixed and the mine was carefully turned round with a “tommy bar”. This was a great physical effort for one man working under immense pressure and wearing oxygen apparatus for the first time.
For two days Newgass battled to defuse the mine. On 30th November the fuse, the magnetic primer and the clocks were all removed. Newgass was then able to report that although the detonator was still in, the mine could be considered safe.
Garston employers then entered the holder and uncoupled the lashing. The mine, which in size and appearance resembled a tug boat funnel, was pulled over on its side, dragged across the “dumping” to a position under the hole on the crown and lifted out by block and tackle. It was then placed on the back of a lorry and driven away.
It is certain that had the mine be detonated, the whole of Garston Works, along with much neighbouring property, would have been completely destroyed in the blast. Lieutenant Newgass was awarded the George Cross, the highest civil decoration available. Local newsagent and tobacconist, Miss Connie Elliot of St. Mary’s Road, started a public collection for the mine disposal squad, resulting in generous gifts being presented on behalf of the grateful people of Garston.
The way in which the ordinary man responded to this dangerous incident by selflessly placing themselves at grave risk in order to keep many more thousands of people safe, was hailed as a great example of the blitz spirit.
Air raid sirens first sounded the warning in London in September 1939 shortly after the outbreak of war with Germany. During the May Blitz of 1941, the frightening sound of the air raid siren could be heard across Liverpool several times each day.
The “Carter” air raid siren, manufactured by Gents of Leicestershire was used exclusively in Britain throughout World War II. The sirens made a very loud and long signal or warning sound. For an alert, the siren sound pitch rose and fell alternately, whereas the “All Clear” was a continuous sound from the siren.
When people heard the siren they would stop what they were doing and make for shelter. Shelters varied from underground stations, to smaller prefabricated Anderson and Morrison shelters. If the bombing seemed light, many people preferred to stay in their homes under the stairs. Government warning messages describing how best to react if the siren sounds, were broadcasted to the general public over the wireless and at the pictures.
Volunteer air raid precaution (ARP) wardens would protect civilians from the danger of air-raids as much as possible during a bomb attack; directing people to the nearest shelter and using their knowledge of the local area to help find and reunite family members who had been separated in the mad rush to escape the bombing.
Liverpool Blitz 70! was a whole city event which took place from Saturday 30th April to Monday 2nd May to mark the 70th anniversary of the May Blitz of 1941.
Whilst giving proper respect to those who lost their lives during the bomb raids of the Second World War, the event was intended to be a celebration of the spirit of the Blitz and indeed, the spirit of Liverpool!
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