大象传媒

My father in law, Herbert Sefton MM, [gained in the First World War], gave his time in the Second World War, between the Auxiliary Fire Brigade and being an Air Raid Warden. One night, the German鈥檚 were dropping incendiary bombs over Scarborough, with this night being a particularly heavy raid. Incendiary Bombs had fallen in the area of Beechville Avenue, where he lived, one falling near to some of the houses. Herbert was running towards the bomb with his bucket of sand to smother it, then would use his shovel, to pick it up, which was the suggested method of dealing with Incendiary Bombs, when suddenly a women ran out of a nearby house and threw a bucket of water over the bomb. The water caused the bomb to flare up, which, as Herbert was close by, melted all the buttons on his trousers, braces and shirt and burnt off both his eye brows, eyelashes and the front of his hair. Some little time later, he arrived in the crypt of St. Columbus Church, on Dean Road, where his wife and family were sheltering. Herbert Sefton was a very mild mannered man, but now, with a very red, and sore looking face, burst forth with a vocabulary of such venom, that my wife can still remember every word used, some sixty years later! In future, when bombs were falling and he was called out, he always looked out for women carrying buckets of water !

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