Harry Robert Piddlesden

1927 - 1943  (15 years)

• Name	Harry Robert Piddlesden
  Born	13 Nov 1927	East Grinstead, Sussex, England
  Gender	Male
  _UID	33EF80DF85234A3E90C0B76C52CF0C5BACA1
  Buried	1943	St Swithun, East Grinstead, Sussex, England
  Died	9 Jul 1943	Uckfield, Sussex, England
  Person ID	I33146	My Big Tree
  Last Modified	14 Jan 2021

  
  

  Father	Harry William Frank Piddlesden,   b. 16 May 1892, Tunbridge, Kent, England ,   d. 10 Apr 1974, East Grinstead, Sussex, England  (Age 81 years)
  Mother	Winifred Kate Wood,   b. 3 Jan 1896, East Grinstead, Sussex, England ,   d. 1967, Uckfield, Sussex, England  (Age 70 years)
  Married	1922	East Grinstead, Sussex, England   [1]
  Family ID	F11409	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Headstones

  Harry Robert Piddlesden 9 Jul 1943

  
  

• Notes

  Nearly four years into World War II the quiet Sussex town of East Grinstead had largely escaped the direct consequences of the conflict. But on 9 July 1943 a lone German bomber pilot, separated from his comrades, spotted a convoy of army trucks along the High Street and dropped eight bombs, causing the largest single wartime loss of life in Sussex. The bombs that fell on East Grinstead killed 108 people and seriously injured 235 more. As people gathered on Tuesday for a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the bombing, some travelling from overseas to be there, memories remained vivid but not easily shared. The impact on East Grinstead - a town with a peacetime population of barely 8,000 - was huge. Many of the victims were children, watching a matinee performance of Hopalong Cassidy at the Whitehall Cinema in London Road. Witnesses said that after discharging the bombs, the pilot turned back and sent machine-gun fire along the street and approach to the railway station, adding to the toll of dead and injured. Canadian troops billeted in the town were drafted in to help with the rescue effort.

  
  

• Sources

  [S282] Marriage Index (Reliability: 3).