Plaque | Civilian war dead | WW2

Poplar firemen

Erection date: 2004

Inscription

AFS London

In memory of fifteen members of the Auxiliary Fire Service killed by enemy action in World War II near this site on the night of 9th/10th September 1940.
{Followed by fifteen names. See commemorated subjects:}
©FR 2004

Site: Poplar firemen (1 memorial)

E14, East India Dock Road, 168, Poplar Fire Station

The plaque leads us to believe that all these men were killed in one bombing incident at one location but does not identify the event. We can find nothing on-line so have written to Firemen Remembered but, as yet, no response. If you have more information please contact us.

Within hours of publishing this we were contacted by Paul Dyer of the Hindle House Memorial Project. They have a page for Fireman Dilworth, one of the names on this plaque, because he lived at Hindle House. And there they explain that the bomb that killed Dilworth and the other 14 firemen fell here, where the fire station now is: "In the early hours of 10th September 1940, the 3rd day of the blitz, John was part of a fire team attending a fire started by a HE bomb explosion at Pearce Motor Engineers (aka Woodstock Garage), 166 East India Dock Road, Poplar East London E14. The fire had spread to Woodstock Terrace {now Woodstock Road} and Poplar Baths. At 04: 06am another bomb fell in the road outside where the first had come down burying 15 firemen. By 10am all of the 15 bodies had been recovered including John Whittaker-Dilworth, none of them had survived." There is a photo there showing some of the damaged buildings.

We are very grateful to the Hindle House Project for gathering this information and for sharing it with us.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesof london.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Poplar firemen

Subjects commemorated i

World War 2

Sorry, we've done no research on WW2, it's just too big a subject. But do vis...

Read More

Thomas Charles Aldsworth

Auxiliary fireman killed in an air raid on Poplar

Read More

Richard Henry Butler

Auxiliary fireman killed in an air raid on Poplar

Read More

Oliver Cromwell Cheater

Auxiliary fireman killed in an air raid on Poplar

Read More

David Clatworthy

Auxiliary fireman killed in an air raid on Poplar

Read More

Show all 16

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Poplar firemen

Created by i

Auxiliary Fire Service / AFS

The Auxiliary Fire Service was formed in 1938 as part of the Civil Defence Se...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Black Prince Road ceramics - plaque 04

Black Prince Road ceramics - plaque 04

SE11, Black Prince Road, Tunnel underneath railway bridge

These lovely ceramics plaques were installed some time in or before 2008. There are 12 oval ceramics of which 7 nos 1-7) are mosaic and r...

1 subject commemorated
Tower Bridge, 1894 - opening

Tower Bridge, 1894 - opening

E1, Tower Bridge

In 1894 the royal personages listed at the top of the plaque as: Prince of Wales, Princess of Wales and Duke of York, were, in simpler te...

1 subject commemorated, 50 creators
Pickwick Bicycle Club

Pickwick Bicycle Club

E5, Downs Road, 75, Downs Hotel

Hackney Citizen 25 June 2014 gives the history of the club and explains "A commemorative plaque marking the home of the club was fixed to...

2 subjects commemorated
Sir Thomas Gresham - Old Broad Street

Sir Thomas Gresham - Old Broad Street

EC2, Old Broad Street

You have to hand it to these plaque erectors; they can erect a plaque just about anywhere, even in a hidden, difficult to reach corner li...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Amen Court

Amen Court

EC4, Warwick Lane, Amen Court

This cast of characters also appear on the nearby St Paul's Choir school plaque, erected 5 years earlier when Claughton was still only a ...

6 subjects commemorated