Hawker & Gloster Aircraft, D-Day, built by Foresters (General)

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, June 25, 2014, 23:49 (3807 days ago) @ Jefff

With regard to the report that Foresters died while travelling to and from their vital work at WW2 armaments factories in the Gloucester area, I can add the following from Humphrey Phelps' excellent book "The Forest Of Dean in Wartime":

"Before the War there was very little employment for women in the Forest. One of the few options for girls was to go into domestic service outside the Forest, a great many did this. The War changed all that.. women from the Forest also played a major role in the many industries relating directly to the War, such as munitions and aircraft factories like the ones at Brockworth, near Gloucester.
Special buses took Foresters to Brockworth factories. One day there was an air-raid just as some Forest workers were about to go home. Mrs Davies, who lived at Causeway Road Cinderford, was killed. She had boarded the bus just minutes before a bomb dropped on it.
Edgar Bradley of Lydbrook was also killed in a raid at Lydbrook. He was sat in the back of an Edwards' bus on a Saturday afternoon, waiting to go home, when a bomb fell on open ground behind the bus. He was still sitting on the bus when it went on it's journey to Lydbrook. It was only later that it was discovered Mr Bradley was dead - killed by some shrapnel which had penetrated the bus and become embedded in his back."

R.I.P Mrs Davies and Edgar Bradley.
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Searching FoD PRs I'm unable to find a Cinderford burial for Mrs Davies.
However,

Record_ID: 397693
Entry_Number: 359
Year: 1905
Month: Sep
Day: 3
Parents_Surname: BRADLEY
Child_Forenames: Edgar Thomas
Fathers_Forenames: William
Mothers_Forenames: Annie
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Lydbrook
Occupation: Collier
Officiating_Minister: Edward Hunt
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: Born 1905 Aug 14
Notes:
Register_Reference: D2598/3/5
Page_Number: 45
Parish_Chapel: Lydbrook Primitive Methodist
Soundex: B634


GlosBMD;

Marriage Details
Groom Surname Groom Forename Bride Surname Bride Forename District Parish Building Year Register Entry
BRADLEY Edgar Thomas BANKS Gladys May Carpenter Forest of Dean Monmouth Register Office 1927 30 50


FreeBMD;

Deaths Jun 1942 (>99%)
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Bradley Edgar T 36 Gloucester R. 6a 529

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I suspect the above story about Edgar Bradley being killed by stray shrapnel actually relates to the same event that was reported as a machine-gun casualty in my previous post in this thread.


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