Location
About half way along the Eastern wall of Kingston Cemetery, adjacent to, and facing, the railway.
Details
The memorial is about 1.5 metres high and is made of slate, set into a limestone slab, standing on a plinth of stones. It commemorates those civilians who lost their lives in bombing raids during WW2. The plaque itself was replaced in 2011 as a precaution against theft (the West-side Civilian Memorial having been stolen earlier in the year). The replacement plaque lists the names of the dead alphabetically whereas on the original they were listed according to their dates of death. Also, the original plaque contained two entries described as "Unidentified" which have been omitted on the current plaque. The names are listed below according to their original list placing.
Detail (2011)
THOSE MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN
BOTH KNOWN AND UNKNOWN WHO
DIED AS A RESULT OF ENEMY
BOMBING ON THIS CITY AND
WHOSE LAST KNOWN RESTING PLACE IS
NEAR THIS SPOT
1939 1945
Inscription (Original Plaque)
WILLIAM J. DEERE |
1 |
1 |
Inscription (Bottom)
SACFICE WILL BE BORN AGAIN THE
GLORY OF MANKIND
Further Details
The names on the memorial are listed below, together with their dates and places of death. The names are linked to the corresponding entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
WILLIAM J. DEERE |
12/08/40 |
H.M. Dockyard |
NOTES
John Christie died in the same incident as his wife Elsie but as a Royal Naval seaman he was also given a separate headstone maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Grave Ref: Plot C.W.D. Row 1 Grave 2). A.W. (Arthur Walter) Jones was a soldier with the Sussex Regiment and as such was also given a separate headstone maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (Grave Ref. Plot C.W.D. Row 1. Grave 19). Both headstones are placed opposite the Civilians Plaque.
Elizabeth Marshall is listed by Chichester Municipal Borough rather than Portsmouth Borough having died in hospital there. She does not appear in Bob Hind's list of civilian deaths ("City of Gallant Hearts") despite apparently living at 52 Hanover Street, Portsmouth.
RESEARCH
Research into the names of the two civilians listed only as "Unidentified" on the original plaque was carried out over a ten year period. It assumed that as those entries fell within a group of civilians all of whom died on 24th August 1940 then they too probably died on that day. Bob Hind has recorded the names and dates of civilians who died on that day, a list that contains 107 names. 20 of those names appear on this civilians memorial and the City Cemetery Office have identified the known resting place of a further 80 persons. This leaves 7 possibilities for the two 'Unidentified' persons.
One of the outstanding names is that of Dorothy Lilian Bone, aged 16 years, and as one of the "Unidentified" entries appears immediately beneath the name of her father Alfred Bone it is probable that it refers to her, especially as she died in the same incident as he and has no known grave. Of course it could be argued that if she died in the same incident, which was at the family home, it would have been fairly obvious who she was. In arguing for or against this notion we are constrained by a lack of knowledge about what constituted positive 'identification' during war time. As Dorothy was only 16 years and at home it is unlikely that she would have been carrying identification papers at the time the bomb struck, whereas her father was more likely to have done so. If there were no neighbours or family in the vicinity then perhaps no one was available to carry out a visual identification, especially if the body was, say, burnt beyond recognition. In any case there is no satisfactory argument that would explain why Dorothy would have been buried anywhere else but by her fathers side.
Of the other six names, George William Bolt and Alice Murtough have been located in Waterlooville Cemetery; Charles Leonard Leach is known to have lived in Gosport and despite the lack of conclusive evidence it seems probable that he was buried there; Henry Frank Hansler was an Air Raid Warden who died in Portsmouth Royal Hospital and although it is not known where he was buried it is inconceivable that he wasn't identified. This leaves Daphne Patricia Browne and Elizabeth Unwin (who died at Brougham Road and 11 Buckingham Place respectively) as the only two possibilities for the remaining "Unidentified" listing.
The matter was finally resolved in November 2012 when the grandson of Elizabeth Unwin wrote to say that after her death the body had been taken home to Sunderland where she was buried.
We can therefore say with a good degree of certainty that the two Unidentified persons were Dorothy Lilian Bone and Daphne Patricia Browne.
See also the West Side Memorial