THE DOVER WAR MEMORIAL PROJECT - World War One - Civilian and Service Casualties in Dover from WWI

370 bombs, 85 shells: approximately 26 killed and 75 injured. In Dover 207 bombs and shells were dropped on an area less than 3 square miles, a density of over 69 impacts per square mile. London received the most bombs, 800, but over 144 square miles. this was a density of 5.5 impacts per square mile.

image - a German artist's depiction of the first ever bomb raid on English soil

CIVILIANS

1914

Date	Name	Injury	Location
24 December	Mr Banks	bruises when knocked out of a tree	Terson's Garden, Leyburn Rd (he working in neighbouring garden of St.James's Rectory cutting holly for decoration)

1916

Date	Name	Injury and Notes		Location
23 January	James Browning		bomb came through the roof and exploded in the upper room, Mr Sladden killed	Red Lion Pub, St. James's Street
	George Gambrill
	Richard Willis
	Daisy Marlow (14)		7th bomb hit wall at back of Cottages, frag-ments hit the children, also Mrs Philpott in bed in an upstairs room (Mrs Philpott believed to have died some months later)	Golden Cross Cottages
	Grace Marlow (10)
	3rd girl child
	Julia Philpott (71)			2 Golden Cross Place (off St James)
19 March	Maude Lloyd	right arm amputated, left seriously hurt, also broken jaw	bomb fell in the back of the workshop, Mrs James killed	Barwick's Workshop, Northampton Street
	Florence Collier	slight/or leg amputated?	bomb fell in the back of the workshop, Mrs James killed	Barwick's Workshop, Northampton Street
	Sister Vincent	injured by glass	bomb exploded on roof	Convent and Home, Eastbrook Place
	W J Burford			New Mogul Inn, Chapel Place
	Joseph W. Mickle			2 Clyde Villas, Church Road
	J Nichols
	Mr Clarks
	three men	injured by splinters thrown some distance
	Mary Ann Asseling, née Gilshnan	severe shock	an invalid on her way to hospital, she arrived by cab in Dover during the raid	died 22 June 1916 at St Margaret's, aged 71
20 May	Mrs Bridges Bloxham/Bloxaham?	struck by bomb fragment in her bedroom, level with the road	bomb exploded in the middle of the road	Military Hill
20 May	a man

1917

Date	Name	Injury and Notes		Location
2 September	Mrs Daisy Warman	slightly hurt	a bomb fell on the roof of the cottages, but blew the wall of the bedroom out, rather than expending its energy inside the room	18 Castlemount Cottages
	Leslie Starham
	John Wilson
	Mrs Sergent	detained in hospital	lived at no 6 - was she the woman blown bodily out of her cottage?	Prospect Cottages/Maison Dieu Post Office
	Mrs Knight (King?)			Prospect Cottages/Maison Dieu Post Office
4 September	Mr. G. Smith	leg broken: his wife and father-in-law (Mr Little) died	a bomb smashed the backs of nos 4 and 6 Widred Road	4 Widred Road
	Mrs Voller			6 Widred Road
	Master Voller			6 Widred Road
	Mrs Hollands			15 Widred Road
	a boy	slight injury	bomb hit front of house, bed-rooms remained	Mr Burwood's house, 14 Odo Road
	a child
24 September	Miss Pilcher	fractured thigh	bomb fell in the garden of no 10 five or six yards from the wind-ows; the ladies were in the lower front room	Miss Pilcher's Shorthand Class, 10 Folkestone Road
	Miss Greenland	lost an eye
	4 other ladies
	Mr Keates' sister-in-law		bomb fell in back yard	40 Glenfield Road
	a woman
	a man
	a boy	bowled over and over by a bomb that exploded near him - remained deaf for some time
30 September	Mr H Marshall	hit by bomb fragments	bomb hit 59 Peter Street	Mr Marshall was across the road at his home - 35 Peter Street

1918

Date	Name	Injury and Notes		Location
16 February	Willie Boorman (15)	badly damaged leg and shrapnel in his body	shelling from a vessel outside the harbour, the shell went through Mr Shovelier's house and burst in the children's bedroom	4 Cowgate Hill
	Sidney Boorman (9)
	Amelia Boorman (11)
	Mr F C Shovelier	slight		3 Cowgate Hill
	inmate (woman?)	slight	shell struck roof	Dover Union Infirmary
19 May	Miss Joad	slight		Priory Hill Villas

photo: German medal depicting Zeppelins, 1915, courtesy Rob Baker

SERVICE PERSONNEL

1915

Date	Name	Location
9 August	three sailors	Zeppelin bomb\|

1916

Date	Name	Location
19 March	eleven men	5^th Batt., Royal Fusiliers, Northfall Meadow Hutment (22 Jan?)
20 May	Deckhand James Harvey	HM Drifter EES, Commercial Quay, wounded by splinter of bomb as he stood on deck
12th August	five soldiers on parade RNAS man a further soldier	Fort Burgoyne, injuries slight near airsheds by East Cliff, slight injury to leg

1917

Date	Name	Location
22 August	three men	32^nd Training Reserve Battery, Dover College
2 September	soldiers injured	5 Bty Royal Fusiliers
31 October	unnamed seaman	Prince of Wales Pier

1918

Date	Name	Location
23 February	two soldiers	old Convict Prison, Langdon Battery

OTHER

1915

Date Name Location

10th August trawlerman in the harbour, injured after bomb fragments pierced sides of trawler

£ DAMAGE

Date	Bombs	Estimated Damage £
24 December 1914	1	nil
9-10 August 1915	3	nil
22-23 January 1916	9	1,591
19 March 1916	24	2,375
20 May 1916	15	903
9 July 1916	7	48
12 August 1916	4	nil
25 August 1916	4	nil
22 September 1916	3	nil
21 April 1917	1 shell	nil
22 August 1917	9	1,288 2s
2 September 1917	14	3,486 4s
4 September 1917	14	1,626 4s
24 September 1917	42	6,672
30 September 1917	3	173 10s
31 October 1917	3	nil
6 December 1917	2	nil
16 February 1918	22 shells	1,055
19 May 1918	4	4,874

most dates and locations kindly supplied by Mark Frost, Dover Museum; further and additional information by courtesy of Jon Iveson, Dover Museum (including bomb counts and damage estimates), and Maggie S-K from a variety of (so far) secondary sources. Dates and numbers in different sources do not always agree.
statistics Dover Express, 20 December 1918 and 14 February 1919

Civilian Casualties

Go to:

Memorial Home