Did Commercial Street in Shoreditch get bombed around 17 October 1940?

I am trying to trace a line of family history and the final piece of the puzzle is establishing if Commercial Street in Shoreditch was bombed on or just before 17 October 1940.

Can anyone help with this or point me in the right direction?

Any assistance greatly appreciated!

Tara

 

Hello and welcome.
Not knowing how well you know anything about this area of East London, it suffered very heavily in the Blitz from September through to December 1940.
I've not traced any specific Civilian War Dead to Commercial STREET, but Commercial Road which runs East West from the bottom of Comm. St was heavily hit a month earlier, in mid September. Shoreditch is the general area for Commercial St; Bethnal Green for Commercial Rd.
There is this one death, but I assume you are looking for a specific individual.
You may need to have a few more posts but if you can, PM me if you want this off board, otherwise reply on this thread.
Name: McHATTIE, THOMAS
Initials: T
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Civilian
Regiment/Service: Civilian War Dead
Age: 44
Date of Death: 17/10/1940
Awards: M M
Additional information: Police Constable. Husband of Susannah Maud McHattie, of 108 Evelyn Court, Amhurst Road, Hackney, London. Injured at Shoreditch, London; died at Chase Farm Hospital.
Casualty Type: Civilian War Dead
Reporting Authority: ENFIELD, URBAN DISTRICT

Hope it's of some help, but on the limited info, it's the best I could do!

 

Hi there and thanks for your reply. No, I don't know the area at all unfortunately so that's helpful information.

The person you have found is the one I believe I am trying to trace. The information I know about the person I am trying to trace is that he was a married Scottish policeman who died in WW2 and was injured/ died in Commercial Road. Having looked at all the deaths in the Met Police for WW2 in the general area of Commercial Road, traced their marriages and birth locations, I'm left with this person. He ticks all the boxes apart from the location of his injury, which was why I was thinking that it might have been Commercial Street rather than Commercial Road - which would fit the Shoreditch link.

Any thoughts?

Tara

 

Any thoughts? Well, I'm stunned that I seem to have hit your bulls eye first time up!!

Firstly, it may well be worthwhile to contact the Metropolitan Police Records Dept, although they would probably appreciate as much detail as you can provide, and may take a bit of time to respond. You may find a phone call will ease things, though.

Secondly, he died in hospital and one a few miles away, which would indicate to me that it was not immediately after his injury (also note the word is injury, when I would expect "wounded" but that could be the language of that time) but it would have occurred at least some days previously.

Whether it was as a result of a bomb explosion, delayed action or as a result of a building collapse during a rescue I couldn't say. Equally it might just be a blackout accident and not being seen by traffic.

Try Googling for public libraries in the area and also Hackney where he lived, or local history societies. They may have access to newspaper records that might have details of police deaths.

Wait up!! I've found more! Metropolitan Police Service - History of the Metropolitan Police Service

So much for my speculations!! To mention "shell" sounds more like an anti aircraft round that failed to explode in the air....

Hope that's a bit more help.

 

Hi and thanks for your reply again. I have been told that the reason he may have been taken to a hospital that distance away was possibly because the hospitals nearby had also suffered from bombings. Interestingly his brother died in Enfield (although some time later) so maybe he was taken there to be close to his brother. I don't know.

I have contacted the Metropolitan Police Historical Society (or something similar) to ask if they hold records and the Hackney Archives, so hopefully one of those leads will prove fruitful.

I will post back here as and when I get any information.

Thanks again for your assistance

Tara

 

You should also ask the Met Police about his Military Medal (M.M.) and for what he was awarded it.
He may have been awarded it if he served in WW1 as seems likely from his age. He would have been 18 or so in 1914... Do you have any details for that period? Where was he born, lived, parents etc?

You mention Enfield and a brother, (although there isn't one in the other 5 CWGC McHatties, so assume a "peaceful" death).

Is this man related, too?
Name: McHATTIE, JAMES WILLIAM
Initials: J W
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force
Unit Text: 20th Sqdn.
Secondary Regiment: York and Lancaster Regiment
Secondary Unit Text: and
Age: 25
Date of Death: 25/04/1918
Additional information: Son of James and Maggie McHattie, of 34, Main Avenue, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, Middx.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: V. A. 72.
Cemetery: LONGUENESSE (ST. OMER) SOUVENIR CEMETERY

 

Tara
With Thomas being injured in a shell explosion, that could have been some time before he died. It doesn't necessarily mean the bombing raid was just before the 17th October, it could have been a few weeks previously. As you have also traced his brother Kenneth, it needs some verification from local newspaper archives or the Met Historical Section to provide a date when he was injured.
The bombing on 17th Oct wasn't really concentrated on the Commercial Road/Street area, so for him to have been taken to the Chase Farm Hospital indicates to me that he had been transferred for specialist care (or near his other relatives (uncle?) in Bush Hill Park).
It seems to have been a faulty ack ack shell which caused his injuries, not specifically a bomb. I seem to have been running in Valda's footsteps!

 

Tara
Some more information from a Pal searching local newspaper archives for you:

Afraid no photo of him.

This is what I have on him so far:

CWGC has under awards M.M for Military Medal but a search of the London Gazette revealed no announcement of his award of this medal. An enquiry to the CWGC revealed that the above information was submitted by Enfield Council and that a check of their Civilian Role Books does note him being awarded the Military Medal. There is also no indication of it being awarded on his Medal Card from WW1 held in the National Archives at Kew, though it is possible that a separate card, now lost, noted award. His service record has also not survived. (He had been in the 2nd Seaforth Highlanders, service no.1134, rank of Corporal, and was awarded 1914 Star, British War and Victory Medals).

Hope that is of help to you.

 

This is FANTASTIC! Thank you soo much!

I'm waiting for a birth certificate to arrive (the GRO has a backlog at the moment unfortunately) so this may provide a definite link and I have also received some information from the Metropolitan Police Archives. Unfortunately no-one seems to have details about exactly where and when he was injured but there seems to be too many coincidences for this not to be our man I think.

Thanks again - you're a star!