It is 80 years since the Blitz, which lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. The intense night bombing of London damaged buildings and killed or injured thousands of civilians.
We have discovered that two people from Kilburn were awarded medals for their bravery in 1941.
Clifford Stratton
Seventeen-year-old Clifford Stratton was an electrical engineer’s assistant who lived at 42 Buckley Road in Kilburn (later in the 1950s and 60s he is shown at No. 48). He had been a volunteer warden for six months.
On the night of Wednesday 16/17 April 1941, 685 German bombers attacked London. This was the largest attack since the Blitz began and some planes made two or even three sorties that night. A huge number of buildings were destroyed, and 1,720 Londoners were killed in what became known as 'The Wednesday'.
Clifford was part of a team of stretcher bearers who rescued a man and two girls trapped on the fourth floor in flats in Portpool Lane, off the Grays Inn Road Holborn. The building was on fire and more bombs were falling. Climbing to the top of their ladder they found it was too short, so they jumped onto a windowsill, and after tying the girls and the man to their backs, they were lowered to other wardens on the ladder. They were incredibly lucky, a few minutes after the rescue, part of the building collapsed.
The team leader, 30-year old Maurice Cohen, was awarded the George Cross, and Stratton was given the British Empire Medal (civilian). Clifford was a scout in the 15th Holborn troop, and he was also given a Silver Cross scout award. He had only recently returned to warden duty after an operation on his foot.
In 1945 Clifford married Phyllis Meredith in Lewisham, and they were still living in Kilburn in the 1960s.
Surprisingly, given the tight wartime censorship restrictions, the government allowed a set of 12 postcards called ‘London Under Fire’ to be published. Two of the set showed the bomb damage in Holborn.
Herbert Cockburn
In the same air raid in a different part of London, Police Sergeant Herbert Cockburn was awarded the BEM Civilian medal, for a rescue in Whittaker Street near Sloane Square station. Cockburn had been stationed at the nearby Gerald Road police station in B Division for a year.
After he and two constables were told a woman was trapped in the debris of a bombed house, Cockburn took charge of the operation and lying full length, he began tunneling through the rubble. After an hour he reached the woman who was trapped in a chair by surrounding timber which was supporting the mass of rubble from above. At great risk to himself, he managed to cut through the timber and the arm of the chair and release the woman. It was due to his courage that she was rescued.
He had joined the Met as a PC in November 1929 and was awarded the King’s Police Medal two years later. On the 29 December 1931 he had been on patrol in the Edgware Road when a horse pulling a van went out of control. Constable Cockburn tried to grab the reins but was knocked down. Refusing to be defeated, he stopped a taxi and went in pursuit of the runaway horse. Hanging on the outside of the taxicab he seized its bridle, but the horse crashed into an omnibus and Cockburn was again thrown into the road. Although injured and badly shaken he continued the chase and after a considerable distance, managed to stop the horse. He collapsed and was taken to hospital and put on the sick list.
Herbert had been living at 44 Brondesbury Villas in Kilburn with his wife Dorothy since 1936. He left the Met in 1946. When he died in April 1980, he lived at The Cottage, the Old Farmhouse, Oakley Green Windsor.
These were the only two people from Kilburn given a civilian gallantry award.
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