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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2005-07 > 1122747816


From: "Colleen" <>
Subject: Re: Bombed out, then what?
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 19:23:36 +0100
References: <GHEFKPKHFFPHFFDMJKLNGEAHGPAA.jean1.williams@ntlworld.com>


No names in the book, unfortunately, it only covers the details of streets
bombed, the crews who dealt with the bombings and the total number and tupes
of bombings overall.

Re: your Williams, One of my Walthamstow Dices married a Williams, any Dices
among your lot?

Colleen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean Williams" <>

> Don't we all wish we had asked these kinds of questions!
>
> Is there anything in your Walthamstow book about Tennyson Road or the
> surnames ECOTT or WILLIAMS? These are my husband's family and I have just
> started researching them. they lived in Walthamstow and Leyton.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Jean
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Colleen [mailto:]
> Sent: 30 July 2005 10:29
> To:
> Subject: [Ess] Re: Re: Bombed out, then what?
>
>
> All those unasked questions we all have. A bomb fell in a street in
> Walthamstow at one time while one of my grandfather's was knocking at a
> front door nearby. I don't why he hadn't taken cover, though I do know
> that
> he refused to sleep in the shelter at night as Hitler wasn't going to ruin
> his night's sleep, so he was maybe being his usual cavalier self. The
> blast
> blew what was left of the door off its hinges and my grandfather on top of
> the door, granddad, 'riding' the door was then blown right through the
> remains of the house into the back garden. He thankfully survived this not
> so 'magic carpet ride', though he was injured and the blast left him
> blinded
> in one eye and with damaged vision in the other. Yet granddad refused to
> allow his partial blindness to ruin his life and continued working in a
> job
> which involved a considerable amount of paperwork.
>
> Looking back I don't know he managed to do it, though at the time I
> remember
> largely taking it for granted that granddad would cope and making no
> allowances for the problems with his sight - granddad's were invincible,
> weren't they? I remember him in the 1950s and 60s telling me to slow down
> when we crossed roads together because his one good eye could see two
> pavement edges and he had to work out which was the real one to step down
> from, yet he walked miles and travelled all over the country. If only I'd
> asked him which street was bombed, then I could perhaps have found date in
> my War Over Walthamstow book. I wish I'd asked him how badly injured he
> was
> and about his treatment - and more importantly how he'd managed to cope so
> well with such impaired sight - but it never occured to me to ask him
> these
> questions until it was too late.
>
> Colleen
>
> was then mpostings like those on this topic are so helpful
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Helen & Bill Bultitude" <>
> To: <>
>
>
>> I wish my dad and grandad were
>> around to tell me how long it was before it was repaired and where they
>> lived immediately following the bombing.
>
>
>
>
>


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