Vol 11.4 THE ROYAL OAK BOMBING

Non-Hampton & Richmond Borough related posts.
Post Reply
Les1949
Posts: 418
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:59 pm

HAMPTON, AROUND AND ABOUT

Things you may not know, or didn’t know you knew!

No 4 THE BOMBING OF THE ROYAL OAK
Revisited

Two years ago, I wrote about the bombing of the Royal Oak pub in South Road, Hampton.

Briefly, during the night, bombers came over and dropped up to eight high explosive bombs in and around Hampton, especially around Dean Road and The Avenue. On that Sunday morning the Royal Oak was quite busy when a bomb fell just outside the pub – demolishing the oak tree that stood outside it.

Two friends, Bill Adams and Sydney Till were killed as they arrived at the pub to bring Bill’s eighty four year-old relative, William, home. William was injured in the attack and died a few months after the incident.

38 year old Bill Adams was buried in Hampton cemetery.

The following was recently posted on facebook by Wendy, mine host at the Royal Oak, and is relevant to the incident so I have reproduced it as it offers fresh information on what happened then and later on..

Paid a visit to Hampton cemetery this morning light some candles on these 2 graves, let me introduce you and tell you a little history of the Royal Oak....80 years ago today on the 7th November 1940 a bomb fell directly outside of the pub..2 men were unfortunately blown to bits, their names were William Adams (known as Bill) and his best friend Sidney Till, they had walked up to get Bills father in law out because the sirens were blaring, just as they got to the door the bomb fell, the father in law was standing by the window and died of his injuries 3 months later, the very sad part of the story is Bill's mum and sister Vera were barmaids at that time but didn't find out until the next day one of the victims was their Bill... the wife of Sidney worked as a paramedic and very sadly had the job of picking up the body parts not knowing it was her husband's don't mean to make you feel sad but these guys should be remembered on this day, just more victims of war, the other grave were a local family called the Cheesemans who were also wiped out on that very night, a wife, husband and 14 year old son. So spare a little thought for them, pray they are resting in peace


.........I wrote about the Cheesman family a number of years ago – their grave is very close to the Broad Lane entrance of the cemetery, on the left hand side as you enter, just behind it is Bill’s grave.
Casualties of war, laid to rest close together, probably within days of each other.
Lest We Forget.

The Old Historian
Post Reply