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Can anyone help find any further information on this family please? I have added a newspaper article link which explains the quest by a lady in the Capel area. There is quite a bit of information added in one of the replies to the March 2016 newspaper article.

Mary Kathleen Ivy Hewitt was killed in the worst civilian accident during World War Two. This occurred on 3rd March 1943 when people were seeking shelter from what they thought was a German bombing raid. At Bethnal Green underground station people fell on top of each other when someone tripped, resulting in 173 fatalities. Mary Hewitt was one of those who lost her life that night. She was buried in St. Thomas Becket Churchyard in Capel Tonbridge Wells.

Her mother Margaret and sister Eileen are also buried in the Capel churchyard. Eileen's husband died in Tonbridge also, but his resting place is unknown.

It is thought that the family could have come to the Kent area to carry out hop picking which is why they came to stay there.

Newspaper article + see comments at end:

http://www.courier.co.uk/Mystery-disaster-victim-rests-village/story-28897732-detail/story.html#comments

The other link below shows the 'Stairway To Heaven Memorial Trust's' website which tells the story of the accident at the tube station in 1943, and also of the campaign to build a memorial to the victims of that night. The memorial is partially built but still has yet to be completed.

My interest in the incident is that I had a family member attend the accident afterwards. My grandfather was a Home Guard member sent in to clear the bodies.

I have recently sponsored Mary Hewitt's part on the memorial which will be installed in the final phase of the build in the form of a conical. Mary Hewitt lived in a road close to where my mother lived during the war.


http://www.stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org/

Can anyone help trying to locate members of the Worthington family possibly still living in the Bradford area?

In June 1944 Sergeant Hendry Worthington was killed in an accident in Colchester North Essex when the Bren Gun carrier he was travelling in with a military convoy blew up.

A road on a new housing estate is to be named after him and this is the reason we are trying find family members.

In June of this year an article was published in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus arranged by my friend who is leading the search for the family. Link here:


http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/13316784.Appeal_to_find_relatives_of_Bradford_soldier_after_street_named_after_him/

All we know is that he is buried at Undercliffe cemetery Bradford, that his wife was called Margaret who lived in Greengates at the time of the incident. His parents were Christopher and Margaret Worthington.

Sgt Worthington's unit was part of 11th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers

Thanks for looking.

I have been contacted by an Essex research group who will be arranging a memorial to the crew of Flying Fortress and passengers in 2015.

On 10th May 1945 two B17 Flying Fortresses collided mid air over Covent Hill in Braintree in Essex U.K. All were killed aboard one aircraft and on the other they all survived.

Both aircraft belonged to the 379th Bomb Group. Serial number 48198 was part of 424 Squadron. The crew of this aircraft survived. Serial number 48813 was part of 526 Squadron and this was the aircraft which sustained the casualties. The bombers were based at Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire and the journey they were on was the first part of a homeward leg back to the USA days after the European wars end.

Some of the airmens' names have been discovered but there is not a lot of information to date.

Pilot - Lt. Thomas B. Piers - (they have made contact with a nephew).
Co Pilot - William Powell.
Navigator - Paul Messina.

The names below were passengers and believed to be ground crew for the same aircraft:

Leslie Lusk.
George H. Miller.
Walker W. Wallace.

There is no further information available at the moment so the research group have no idea where these people's home towns were - apart from Lt Piers. A B17 Flying Fortress crew at that time consisted of nine airmen I'm informed due to the bombardier being removed as they were short of these and needed for the Japanese campaign. Usually there were ten men in a crew.

There's not a lot to go on I know, but someone might read this and be able to help with the tracing of relatives. A considerable effort is being planned for the memorial and ceremony which no doubt will be comprehensively reported on in the media.

I started a thread some weeks ago regarding tracing relatives of a young Essex airman killed in 1943 in Holland. Researchers there are unveiling a memorial to the RAF crew of a Halifax bomber on the 29th of this month (29.09.2013).

We are trying to find relatives of Bertram Scudder. Having just obtained his mothers probate we need to check an address of a benefactor who in 1979 lived at an address in Sawbridgeworth. There are two addresses close to each other that need to be checked. Is there anyone interested in WW2 aviation history willing to do some leg work and door knocking?

Time is now of the essence.

If anyone can help please PM me or e-mail me directly: ^(*)

Link to the thread current on Essex Look Up Requests:


http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=656117.80

(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy, to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.

There has been a thread running on the 'Essex look up requests' in the U.K. for over a week now. This began with the search for a RAF airmans' family who came from South Essex. A Dutch researcher is planning to unveil a memorial to two crew killed in a 1943 aircraft crash near where he lives in The Netherlands.

The researcher, Rob Lanting is also looking for relatives of the other crew on the aircraft, a Halifax bomber.

The crew consisted of British, American and Canadian. Quite an unusual mixture.

William Bellinger came from Ontario. There is quite a bit of essential reading to do on the thread if anyone wishes to help.

Rootschat member Geoff Pain will also need to be contacted for an update of progress made to date so that helpers don't repeat lines of enquiry.

Unfortunately the link to the radio station appeal where the search originated from has now expired but I am trying to get this re established.

Thanks for reading.

Link:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=656117.0