Nottingham’s London Road area soon became engulfed by the May 8th/9th air raid. Samuel Mitchell, ARP warden responsible for Boot’s Island Road complex, recalled ‘we had received messages that the Boot’s shop on Wheeler Gate had been damaged by a bomb and that Boot’s in Beeston had been struck by a bomb at the main gates. Then, bombs fell on our site and also the local gas works [Eastcroft]. All around was ablaze and tireless firemen fought with unflagging desperation to save the buildings.’
Roy Wolfe, a fireman sent to tackle the Boot’s blaze, remembered ‘when the blast from one of the bombs hit us, it seemed to suck the breath out of your body. The pressure was so strong that it all but stopped the towing vehicle. Smoke filled the road and we couldn’t see a thing, gradually it began to clear and we saw this huge crater. It was almost directly underneath the railway bridge.’
Three men and a seventeen year old boy had been fire watching at Boot’s print works. For William Daykin, Eric Sedgwick, Harold Towle and Derek Needham, all trapped in the wreckage, there seemed little hope and all four perished.
- Names on this memorial
- Location
- Photographs
Boots Printing Works was part of the company's Nottingham Island Street factory shown here during the 1920s.
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Boots Printing Works Commemorative Plaque. Current location: Capital One (site of former Boots Co Ltd Printing Works), 35 Station Street, Nottingham, NG1 7HW. Stone tablet with incised gilt lettering, set into the external wall on the corner of the building.
Photo: Gary Crosby
Damage to the Boots Printing Works following the (9/5/41 air raid)
Photo: Nottingham Evening Post and David Needham
The modern view towards the former Boots Island site. David Needham notes 'Buildings were well alight all round this area on the night of May 8th/9th 1941.' Canal water was used to fight the flames.
Photo: David Needham (2009)
Eastcroft gas works London Road, close to the Boots site, was badly damaged during the May 1941 air raid. Works employee Percy Hague won the George Medal for his bravery tackling incendiaries here and fireman George Morrison was awarded the OBE.
Photo and information: David Needham , Battle of the Flames p.131.