Auxiliary Fireman Denis Gerald Fitzgerald was born on 20 June 1912 in Croydon, Surrey, the son of William Fitzgerald (b.1886) and Mabel Annie Fitzgerald née Theobald (1887-1958). He was baptised on 8 September 1912 at St John the Baptist Church, Croydon where the baptismal register shows family were living at 50 Old Town, Croydon and that his father was a baker. His sister, Marguerite Doreen Fitzgerald (1915-2007) was born on 25 June 1915.
Electoral registers from 1920 to 1929 show his parents listed at Lake View, Oxted Mills, Oxted, Surrey and from 1930 to 1932 all four family members are shown at this address on the registers.
He married Gwendoline Emily Avern (1915-2013) and the marriage is recorded in the 2nd quarter of 1939 in the Bromley, Kent, registration district. The 1939 England and Wales register shows them living at 30 Keswick Road, West Wickham, Kent and his occupation was recorded as a bank clerk.
He joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and was attached to Coney Hall Auxiliary Fire Station, West Wickham, Kent. He was killed, aged 28 years, on 19 March 1941, together with four other colleagues who were aboard a pump, one of a convoy, that was travelling to a fire in Silvertown and that was obliterated in a parachute mine explosion in Plaistow Road, West Ham.
He and his four colleagues were buried in a communal grave in St John the Baptist Churchyard, Layhams Road, West Wickham, BR4 9HN. Administration of his estate was granted to his widow on 18 September 1941 and probate records show that his effects totalled £903-8s-3d.
He is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939-1945 located just outside St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey and his name is shown on the National Firefighters Memorial at Sermon Lane, London, EC4 and in their Book of Remembrance.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
