Auxiliary Fireman - one of two men (with L. W. G. Wilson) who gave their lives at Soho Fire Station on 7th October 1940.
Beyond the Flames has another photo and: "It would take two days before their bodies were finally recovered. The Evening News, in its edition on Tuesday 8th October gave back page coverage to the ‘ALL-NIGHT LONDON RAIDS. Towards the tail end of the lengthy update was the sub-heading ‘FIREMAN KILLED’. The paper commented; ‘One fireman is dead, one is missing, and three are severely injured as the result of a bomb on a London fire station. The rest of the staff of the station got out of the debris unharmed.’
Our colleague, Andrew Behan, has researched this man.
Auxiliary Fireman Frederick Mitchell was born on 28 September 1911. Both he and his wife, Gertrude Florence Mitchell, were shown on the 1934 electoral registers as living at 68 Catherine Street, London, SE11 (subsequently renamed as Worgan Street). Electoral registers from 1935 to 1939 show them listed at 224 Gosling Way, Brixton.
On the 1939 England and Wales Register he was listed at the London Fire Brigade Sub-Station, 74 Newman Street, Marylebone.
He was killed, aged 29 years, on 7 October 1940 at Shaftesbury Avenue Fire Station as a result of enemy action during a German bombing raid.
He is also commemorated on the National Firefighters Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance. He is also shown on the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939-1945 located just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey and on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website.
