Kingston Cemetery
- Civilians (West Side) Memorial -

Location
About half way along the Western wall of Kingston Cemetery (see map).
 
Details
This memorial commemorates those civilians who lost their lives in bombing raids during WW2. It was erected in November 2011 as a replacement for one that was vandalised during the summer of that year. The original plaques displayed the names in approximate order of the date of death, including the inscription "Unidentified" where relevant; the replacement plaques show the names in alphabetical order and group the unidentified together as a single common commemoration.
 

Memorial

 
Location

 
Remembering (9th Nov. 2011)

 
Original Panels 1 and 2

 
Original Panels 3 and 4

 

 
 
Further Details
Those commemorated are listed below with their dates and places of death plus their grave references (row/grave number). The names are linked to their entry in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database whilst links from places are connected to other relevant memorials. They are listed according to their position on the original plaques; those who were 'UNIDENTIFIED' have been replaced in their relevant positions.

 
NOTES
Anne B. Judge is listed as Annie Marie Judge at CWGC
Emily McJanet is listed as Emma (or Emily) McJannett at CWGC
Laura Ripiner is listed as Lana Ripiner at CWGC
Maureen C. Shepherd is listed as Moreen Carol Shepherd at CWGC
 
The five grave references missing from the list above (1/1, 1/7, 2/20, 2/34 and 2/38) are assigned at the CWGC to serving members of the armed forces who died along with their family and/or friends in the incidents above. They were respectively, Doris Violet Grace Tipper, Reginald Henry Harris, A.W. Miller, Stephen Ernest Ripiner and Arthur Cyril Gates. All have CWGC headstones facing the civilian memorial. There is no evidence to suggest why grave reference 2/19 is missing.
 
The Search for the UNIDENTIFIED
Research carried out by Bob Hinds of The News led to the publication of his book "City of Gallant Hearts" in which he lists the names of every civilian who died from enemy action during the Second World War. There were 930 of them in total and Bob Hinds went on to provide much information about the life and death of each, including the date and place of death. It was this information that permitted the construction of the table above and as a byproduct allows us to make some assumptions about the names of the Unidentified on the list.
 
As the original plaque listed the names in their order of death (with just a couple of names out of place) we can deduce that where a block of the Unidentified appears in the middle of a sequence where the date remains the same, then they too probably died on that date. The first two blocks of them, totalling 11 names, appears within the sequence which records the date as 10th January 1941. From "City of Gallant Hearts" we can determine that 168 people lost their lives as a consequence of enemy action on that night, 36 of them are named on this memorial. If we can eliminate those that are buried elsewhere, the names that are left must correspond with the Unidentified.
 
The first stage in this elimination process was to submit the list of 132 names whose burial place was unknown to the Cemetery Manager whose staff very kindly went through their files and identified the graves of 84 of them within the three main cemeteries on Portsea Island. This left 48 names and the next problem of checking local cemeteries outside Portsmouth. This process is ongoing. The list of names unaccounted for follows below. If any reader can supply further information about them we would be most grateful.
 

 
See also the East Side Memorial