. > ...
the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
the later Victorian and Edwardian times 1890 to 1919
The First World War (continued)
2 incendiary bombs fell in Grosvenor Road. 1 HE bomb fell on Claude Road, wrecking a house and breaking glass in 175. A man, a woman and a child were killed. An incendiary device fell on Murchison Road. A bomb and 2 incendiaries in Albert Road damaged one house. A woman and a child were slightly hurt. An incendiary in Twickenham Road caused a small fire but no casualties. A bomb on Oakdale Road and another on Ashville Road damaged 30 homes and broke the windows of 123 others, killing 2 men and injuring 4 men, 11 women and 6 children. An incendiary device on St Augustine's Church, Lincoln Street, gutted the building. Another on Mayville Road caused a fire in a kitchen. A bomb in Southwell Grove Road demolished the backs of 2 houses and broke windows in 132 houses. 1 man was killed. Mr R Osborne : “On my way home on leave in answer to a telegram telling me of my father's death, I overheard a conversation about a raid on Leytonstone. Much to my surprise, it concerned my Dad. What a shock it was to me when I turned the corner of Southwell Grove Road and found that I had lost my home . . . Where was my mother? . . . She had been saved by seeing a picture through twice at the Premier Cinema . . . I found my pigeons alive after being under bricks, rafters and debris but had survived . . .” The last HE bomb from airship L10 fell near the boating lake in Wanstead Flats, breaking windows in 75 private homes. 9
9 They Come! They Come! The Air Raids on London during the 1914-1918 War, by John Hook 1987. VHM shelf item 164.1
“During the 1914-1918 War they opened a soup kitchen down under a railway arch in Lansdowne Road in Leytonstone, and we used to go there and it cost half a penny. We used to get a little bowl of soup and a piece of suet pudding with currants in and that used to last us a day. There was no rationing. ... it was the survival of the fittest.” 13
13 WFOHW interview 339