The Stocking and Hill families suffered losses in WW1. The last months of WW2 were to bring even more. My great grandfather Jim Stocking died at the beginning of the conflict; the family of his widow, Susan, were later caught in one of the worst V2 rocket attacks on London, an impact which must have been felt keenly in the family and wider community for years to come.

Charlotte Sarah Hill’s family life

Susan’s sister, my great grand aunt, Charlotte Sarah Hill, was born in Bermondsey in 1883, the fourth child of John and Elizabeth Sarah (Windebank). She married Charles Clark on 2 February 1902, when she was 19. They had four children between 1905 and 1913. At the time of the 1911 census, they are living at Clarehall Place, Rotherhithe, with three children: Thomas, aged 5; Susan, 18 months, and four-month old baby Charles. Two other children had died in infancy. Charles is working as a General Labourer at the nearby docks. Another child, a daughter, Lily, was born in 1913.

Like his brother-in-law John Charles Hill, Charles Clark was wounded in the First World War, in 1914. It was a serious injury: he was shot in the left groin and right buttock, and had to have an operation to remove the bullets; his sciatic nerve was damaged, which probably left him in a lot of pain. He was discharged in 1914. The couple had another child, a son, William, in 1919. At the time of the 1921 census, Charles Clark is out of work, although he says that his last employer was Deptford Borough Council, his occupation, General Labourer. Charlotte is also at home at Cornbury Road, Deptford, with five children aged 2-15, so times must have been hard with no income coming in.

Their daughter Susan Elizabeth Clark, born in 1909, had married Joseph Colwell in Southwark on Christmas Day 1929 , a few months after my paternal grandparents married. Joseph and his family were the Clarks’ neighbours in Cornbury Road. They had a daughter, Lilian, in 1933. At the time of the outbreak of World War II, when the 1939 Register was taken in September that year, the Colwells are living at 182 Folkestone Gardens; Joseph is described as a Timber Labourer, Docks and their daughter Lilian is six years old. The Clarks are still at Cornbury Road in 1939 and adult sons Charlie and William are at home. Charles senior is a Pneumatic Driller, and Charlotte is working as a kitchen hand in a coffee shop. The photos below come from another family tree on Ancestry.co.uk.

The night the V2 fell

The area of South London where the Clarks and Colwells lived, Deptford, was badly bombed during the War. The BBC’s WW2 People’s War site has an account from Daisy, who was a girl during that time, describing how her family reacted to the nightly raids and the loss of local people and buildings during the Blitz. Worst was to come, with the launch of ‘V1’ and ‘V2’ weapons.

On the night of 7 March 1945, Charlotte was visiting or staying with their married daughter Susan and her husband Joseph Colwell, a docks worker, at their home at 168 Folkestone Gardens, Deptford. These were flats occupied mainly by railway and docks workers. Other Colwell family members lived at no. 205, and it seems that Charlotte, her daughter and family were there when, at 3.20am, a V2 rocket fell:

“This very serious incident happened when a V2 Rocket fell between two blocks of flats called Folkestone Gardens in Trundle Road. Both blocks of flats were destroyed as were 5 houses. There were 2 small fires. … 8 railway arches used as spinning mills slight damage. The Folkestone Gardens flats belonged to the Southern Railway most if not all of the casualties were railway employees or their dependents”.

Flying Bombs and Rockets

Among the 53 people killed that night, were Charlotte Sarah Clark, her daughter Susan Elizabeth Colwell and son-in-law Joseph Colwell, and their 11 year old daughter Lilian Colwell. Joseph’s father John and several other family members were also killed. It was one of the worst civilian losses of the War; the site is now a park. The last V2 fell on London just under three weeks later (see image below). My father would have been 15 years old at the time his great aunt was killed, but never mentioned it.

Two years earlier, in 1943, another bomb had killed 38 children and six teachers at Sandhurst School in Catford, where my father – then 13 – had friends amongst the dead, and he did recall their loss. The account of this and the Folkestone Gardens bombings are harrowing and must have had a long term impact on the Hill (and Stocking) families. Of course, in line with news blackouts at the time, contemporary newspapers did not reveal the terrible details until years later. I was saddened to see, when I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford a few years ago, an exhibition about the school bombing, with contemporary photographs and newspaper clippings.