Walking these quiet streets now, it seems hard to believe that World War Two ever came to Chelston. According to a log kept at St Marychurch Fire Station, Torquay was raided by the Luftwaffe no less than 21 times, most horrifically in May 1943 when 40 people were killed, including 23 children at Sunday School in St Marychurch. It is hard to imagine the terror that must have accompanied every one of the 643 air raid warnings that rang out over Torquay.

Chelston’s worst attack was a few months earlier, on 4th September 1942 just before 7pm. A German plane flew over Torquay town centre, spraying people with machine gun fire on Tor Hill Road and a little further on targeting the railway with two high-explosive bombs. Neither hit its intended target. One overshot slightly and hit the houses on Rosery Road, the other landed another hundred or so metres on at Dornafield, just above the shops on Old Mill Road. A photo which has appeared in the ‘Bygones’ section of local newspaper the Herald Express shows how complete the destruction was.

The archive at the Devon Heritage website lists the civilian casualties of World War Two, and thanks to this list we have a record of those who died in the bombing:

• Adelaide Mabel Baxter, aged 63, died at Dornaford
• Beatrice Mabel Bickford, 49, at no 26 Rosery Road
• Midgley Booth, 59, at no 28
• Florence Catherine Gillard, 38, at no 27
• Minnie Gladys Martin, 50, a civilian air raid warden who lived on Sherwell Valley Road
• Frederick Webber, 64, who lived on nearly Mallock Road

Joan Brotherton (15), sisters Cecily and Mona Withers-Lancashire (56 and 57), Edith Fogwell (68), Annie Louise Harris (56), and Mabel Margaret Hogg (31) all died in the same raid on Tor Hill Road. Doris Beatrice Annie Coad, 36, was injured and later died, but I have not found a record of where she was injured.

Although no deaths are recorded on this date in the St Marychurch log, Joseph Herbert Large is recorded as having died aged 77 at 28 Rathmore Road in Chelston on 13th February 1943.

The story of Frederick Webber is a poignant one. Born in 1888, his parents moved into Mallock Road from Taunton some time after the street was built in the early 1900s and presumably he either moved with them or inherited the house. His elder brother, Private Edward Courtney Webber, served in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment in the First World War and died in August 1918 aged 35. Frederick and Edward’s parents lost one of their sons in each of the world wars.

We are particularly interested in the backgrounds of the above people, and would love to hear from anyone who can add anything to the story of this tragic day.

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