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15 October 2014
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Bristol Blitz: The War Comes to Knowle

by ianhaddrell

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Contributed by听
ianhaddrell
People in story:听
Herbert Henry Haddrell, Thomas Haddrell, Georgina Haddrell
Location of story:听
Bristol
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A5289618
Contributed on:听
24 August 2005

Rear of garden 68 Kingshill Road, Knowle, Bristol. Back Row Left to Right: Thomas William Haddrell, Edgar George Haddrell, unknown Australian soldier, Arthur Haddrell. Front left to right: Clifford John Haddrell, Herbert Henry Haddrell. Photograph taken May 1940.

Herbert Henry Haddrell was born on 27th March 1925 at Bristol General Hospital, Guinea Street, the son of Thomas and Georgina Haddrell. He was the youngest of twelve children - six boys and six girls 鈥 born to Thomas, a dock labourer and his wife Georgina (ne茅 Lee). The family was living at 22, Tower Street in Temple parish at the time of the birth and Bert was the only child to be born in hospital 鈥 his brothers and sisters being born at home.

The Haddrell family had moved to the Temple area of Bristol in the early 1890鈥檚; the widowed Ann Haddrell having brought her five children (Thomas, John, William, Frederick John, and Bessie Maud) with her from the town of Calne in Wiltshire. The 1891 Census records the family living at 2, Brooks Court, Rose Street. Thomas and Georgina lived at 19 Church Street for a period, until c.1915, after which they moved to 22, Tower Street. The house was on three floors with a front room that gave access to the stairs to the cellar, which housed the coal. The passage led to the living room/kitchen that housed the stove. Originally, the house was lit by oil lamps until Thomas paid to have gas put in the property. Before the gas stove was installed cooking had been done on the open fire in the kitchen. There were two bedrooms on the first floor, 鈥渢he boys room and mother鈥檚 room鈥; the girls were in the bedroom on the second floor.

The yard at the back of the house was a stoneyard where fowls, pidgeons, rabbits, and ducks were kept. Thomas wouldn鈥檛 kill the animals himself, so he would ask their next door neighbour, Jack Whiting, to kill the animals for him. The toilet and washroom were at the bottom of the yard. The toilet had to be flushed with buckets of water, taking care not to pour water over the seat. When it was dark, light for the toilet was provided by a candle brought from the house. Sometimes there were rats in the rafters of the toilet, which came into the property from the stables in Avon Street, behind the backyard. The washroom housed a tin bath where the children were washed and scrubbed by Georgina, wrapped in a towel and then 鈥渞un across the yard to the house to warm in front the fire鈥.

Shortly after Bert鈥檚 birth the Haddrell family moved from the Temple area to Knowle Park, being re-housed in a house erected by the Great Western Railway Company, as alternative accommodation for the tenants of old property being demolished at Temple in the course of clearing ground for the new G. W. Goods Yard. The Labouring Classes Dwelling Act provided that before tenants could be disturbed suitable alternative accommodation had to be found for them. Family tradition has it that Thomas was reluctant to move out of the Temple area and that the Haddrells were one of the last families to leave, because of his reluctance to move.

As a docker, Thomas Haddrell, had to report each day to 鈥渟ign on鈥 for work and see if he was required. If not wanted that day he would then return home; the consequence of 鈥渘othing about today鈥 was, of course, no pay. The family were not affluent and didn鈥檛 have a lot but despite having difficulty in managing Georgina ensured that the children didn鈥檛 鈥済o short鈥. Being the youngest Bert considered that he had a somewhat 鈥渟heltered鈥 childhood.

As a child Bert joined the local Cub Pack and then Scout Group, enjoying the fellowship and the activities such as camping. Bert attended Knowle Park Infants School, Knowle Park Junior School, and Merrywood Boys Grammar School, having taken and passed the 鈥渟cholarship exam鈥. As a student, Bert was interested in Art, French, and English, enjoying reading, but, by his own admission, wasn鈥檛 particularly good at Maths.

鈥淚 was no good at sport and would get out of it if possible.鈥

Thomas Haddrell took Bert away from school as he said that he couldn鈥檛 afford to keep him there and that he needed to go out and get a job. Thomas showed no real interest in his son鈥檚 future career plans and left any decisions to his wife. Leaving school at the age of 14, in 1939, Bert joined a printing firm, Burleighs Ltd, in Lewins Mead, as a Reader鈥檚 Assistant, which involved reading Gallyproofs to the Reader who would then make the necessary corrections 鈥 effectively proof reading. Bert didn鈥檛 stay long at his first job and found employment next at a Financiers Office, F.G. Price Ltd, High Street - in reality Money Lenders. At times he was sent out to collect money from customers; something he didn鈥檛 like doing at a relatively young age. Bert then joined H.J.Packer and Co. Ltd, chocolate manufacturers, in October 1940 at the age of 15 as an office boy working in Carlyle Road, Greenbank, Bristol where both the offices and factory were located. He was to remain with the company 鈥 under various guises: Carsons, Cavenham Confectionery, Famous Names, Elizabeth Shaw 鈥 for 47 and a half years. Bert鈥檚 first duties as an office boy at Packers included dealing with the post, telephones and taking round the cigarette list and menu, which he enjoyed doing.

Bert listened to the announcement by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the radio that Britain was at war with Germany at his sister's house in Hanham (Alice and Art Heales), but at the time didn鈥檛 realise the full implication of what was being said.

Once the war started Bert undertook voluntary work during the evening taking apart gas masks. He also helped at home with the black out precautions for the house, sticking adhesive tape on the windows and helping put up black out curtains. At Packers Bert worked a shift, fire watching in case incendiary bombs were dropped on the factory. Dropped by their thousands, the 1 kg incendiary bomb posed a tremendous problem for fire fighters. On impact, a fuse inside the bomb ignited the outer casing of magnesium. Having received no training he was issued with a stirrup pump as the only means to deal with any fires. Fortunately, no incendiaries dropped on the chocolate factory when he was on duty.

Stirrup pumps were issued to thousands of house-holders at the outbreak of the war as means of controlling the effects of incendiary bomb attacks. In practice it was soon discovered, however, that the simple expedient of throwing a bucket of water over the bomb had quicker results.

The Luftwaffe orders for the night of Sunday November 24th 1940 were for the first major attack on Bruder, the German code name for Bristol, but as there had been a good deal of fog over Northern France earlier in the day, and a chance that it might return, it was decided operations should be completed by midnight. A total of 148 aircraft, - three principle types of bomber, the Dornier Do 17, the Heinkel He 111 and the Junkers Ju 88, all twin-engined aircraft - were ordered to the City, 135 of which claimed to have attacked between 1830 and 2300 hrs with 156.25 tonnes of H.E.'s, (High Explosives) 4.75 tonnes of Oil Bombs and 12,500 I.B.'s (Incendiaries).

The concentration point was centred on the harbour and industrial plants on both sides of the City Docks, with the intention of "eliminating Bristol as an importing port supplying much of the Midlands and South of England". The aircraft involved in this operation were drawn from I/KG 1, III/KG 26, and III/KG 27, I, II and III/KG 51, Stab, I, II and III/KG 55, KGr.100, KGr.606, and LG 1.

For the Germans it was a successful night and only 2 aircraft failed to return, a Heinkel of II/KG 55 shot down off Portsmouth by anti-aircraft fire and a Dornier from KGr.606 which crashed near Plymouth, as a result of which 4 crewmen were killed and a further 4 made prisoner, including one who was injured. The general impression given by participating airmen was that results were similar to those achieved at Birmingham and Coventry.

The attack, however, resulted in the death of 200 Bristolians, and injuries to a further 8909. It had concentrated on the central area, with further damage occurring in Clifton, Temple, Knowle, Barton Hill and Eastville, but greatest destruction took place in the heart of the City from Broad Quay to Old Market, while St. James' Barton and St. Philip's suffered severely. Exceedingly large calibre bombs were reported as having fallen at Eastville, Speedwell, Temple and Totterdown, while for the greater part of the night the City was blazing furiously and many well known buildings were totally destroyed and others gravely damaged.

The Haddrell family residence, 68, Kingshill Road, Knowle, became one of the 10,000 homes damaged by the first major air raid attack on Bristol. Another casualty of that first Bristol blitz was Temple Church; gutted by incendiary bombs but its leaning tower remained standing. Sappers thought that German bombs were the cause and that the tower should be hauled down. They had to be persuaded that the leaning was not the result of enemy action, but that it had leaned five foot out of perpendicular since 1460.

A number of Bert鈥檚 family were married in Temple Church. His grandmother Ann Haddrell was remarried there in 1893 to Henry Broad. His Uncle Bill (William) Haddrell married Rose Jones in 1920, and two sisters Bess and Alice were also married in the church. From 1898 the parish registers record the baptisms of Thomas and Georgina鈥檚 twelve children, Bert included.

St. Peter's Hospital, one of the city's finest Tudor houses, and at the time housing the register office for births, marriages and deaths, was also destroyed. Thomas Haddrell and Georgina Lee were married there in October 1898.Thomas Haddrell had, for reasons best known to himself, refused to have an air raid shelter installed in the house. Consequently, Georgina, Bert, Fred, and Cliff used the Anderson shelter in their next door neighbours garden, the Sanders family, whilst Thomas normally remained in 68 Kingshill Road during enemy raids. At the time of the raid on the evening of the 24th, Cliff was attending church.

"We knew there was a chance it might be Bristol's turn. Coventry and other cities had just had blitzes, so we suspected it might be us next time. I was 15 - I'd left school at 14 - and was the youngest of 12 children, six boys and six girls. I worked as an office boy for the chocolate-makers H.J.Packer in Greenbank. Father was a docker and mother a housewife and there were four boys still living at home in Kingshill Road in Knowle Park.

It had been a pretty usual sort of Sunday with church and Sunday school and a quiet afternoon. We had our tea at five o'clock - bread and butter and tinned fruit, we always had tinned fruit on Sundays - and we waited for my brother Fred to come home from work at the B.A.C. His tea was laid out for him.

After he got back, he washed and when he looked out of the window, he saw flares lighting up the sky like daylight. He'd been through the big raid on Filton a couple of months before and he said: 'It looks like trouble. Come on.' We didn't have our own shelter. Father wouldn't have one. I don't know why. Parents didn't discuss things like that with children in those days. You were seen and not heard.

In earlier raids, mother and I went to a neighbour's shelter but my brother said the best thing was to make our way to the nearest public shelter, which was by the shops at the top of Red Lion Hill. There was my mother, father, brother and myself, but before we could get out of the house all hell let loose when the bombs started falling. We took shelter under the stairs whilst the high explosives and the incendiary bombs were falling all around. The windows were all blown in and we just crouched there for what seemed an eternity. At last there was a lull in the bombing and my brother said he thought that we ought to try to make it to the public shelter.
We put on our outdoor clothes and were standing behind the front door waiting for my father to lace up his boots, which took a little while. We went on at him, 'Come on, Dad, hurry up", but he took his time. That delay probably, saved our lives because, as we were trying to get him to hurry up, a bomb fell in the road just outside the house. The blast threw us all backwards, the door blew in and fell down on my mother. If Dad hadn't been so slow, we would have been killed. We found out afterwards that a neighbour who was outside looking for his dog was blown to bits.

We crouched under the stairs again, covered in broken glass and debris, for what seemed like an eternity until there was another lull. Then we ventured forth. It took ages to get there. Mother suffered badly with her legs and we didn't know then that she'd been injured with a big splinter from the door. She kept saying, 'Leave me to die, leave me", but we wouldn't and my brother and I sort of dragged her along. At last we got there. It took us half-an-hour to do what would have been a ten-minute walk for most people.

I don't think I was frightened. There was too much going on to be frightened. It was when you had to sit there and listen to the bombs coming and thinking that the next one might have your number on it that you were frightened, not when you were busy.

We spent the rest of the night in the shelter, staying there till dawn. When we got out, it was an incredible sight, mess everywhere. When we got back to our home the roof was damaged, door gone, windows all smashed in. We'd lost most of our possessions but I'll never forget seeing my brother's tea still on the table, the tinned fruit ruined.

We never went back to the house. They repaired it later but father just wouldn't return. We went to stay with a brother at Bedminster and later we went to my sister's house in Hanham because it was a bit out of town.

I heard all about the damage in the city but didn't go down there for some time. Then when I did I just felt very, very sad for all we'd lost. What really upset me was losing the old Dutch House. As a little lad I'd been taken down to the old Wine Street, Castle Street shopping area and I was fascinated by the Dutch House鈥t always made me think of something out of a fairy tale. It was so sad what had happened to the old heart of the city. There were so many lovely old shops there and it was so popular. But it was all gone.

I've been back to Kingshill Road since then. I had lots of friends there and many memories. The house is still there and I always remember that last night we had there."

Georgina went to hospital the next day as she was complaining that her arm was causing her pain. It was discovered that she had a large wooden splinter in her arm that had to be removed. As the house was uninhabitable following the bomb damage the family went to stay with Tom Haddrell, Bert鈥檚 eldest brother, in Bedminster and afterwards spent some time with his eldest sister Alice and her husband at Hanham. Following the raid the house in Kingshill Road was still in a sound condition, despite the windows and doors having been blown in. After it was repaired the railway company offered to re-house the family there, but Thomas refused to move back in. The Haddrells eventually settled at 1, Victoria Avenue, Redfield, in a house that they rented from Art Heales, the husband of Bert鈥檚 eldest sister Alice Maud.

Three of Bert鈥檚 brothers also served in the Armed Forces during the War. Edgar George Haddrell, who emigrated to Queensland, Australia in 1930, enlisted on 21st October 1939 at Townsville, Queensland joining the 2/12th Australian Infantry Battalion. He was killed during the siege of Tobruk on 5th August 1941 and is buried in Tobruk War Cemetery, Libya (Plot 4, Row Q, Grave 4). Edgar visited his mother at Kingshill Road in November 1940, whilst he was stationed at Colchester. He actually went AWOL (absent without leave) from 0630 hrs on 8th Nov to 2200 hrs on the 11th Nov, for which he forfeited 2 days pay and was fined 30/-.

Arthur Haddrell joined the Royal Corps of Signals on the 30th April 1942, serving as a Driver in the Middle East and with the Central Mediterranean Force. He was discharged in 1947. Clifford John Haddrell joined the Royal Navy serving on HMS Active.

The eldest brother Thomas William Haddrell had served in the 15th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment during the Great War and had been wounded in 1918. The fifth brother Frederick John Haddrell was employed by the B.A.C. (Bristol Aeroplane Company) at Filton and was not 鈥渃alled up鈥 because his job was classified as being in reserved occupation and thus exempt from military conscription.

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