Thursday 29 December 2022

Sheffield's First Air Raid Victims of World War 2 - 28th-29th August 1940

One of the first articles I placed on the site many years ago was one about the loss of life that occurred on 12th December 1940 when the Marples public house in Fitzalan Square was flattened by a Luftwaffe bomb. It was the single biggest loss of life in Sheffield during the whole war.

But there were a number of other occasions when lives were lost as a result of Luftwaffe activity. The last two people to lose their lives in Sheffield were George Macbeth and William Trevor Wilde. They were killed on Clarkhouse Road in Sheffield on Monday 20th October 1941 but their deaths were caused not by a German bomb but by an anti-aircraft shell that exploded in the road near to them. The Last of 631 Fatalities - Sheffield 1939-1945.

And so to round the articles off I thought that it would be fitting to ascertain who were the Sheffield's first air raid victims of the Second World War. I have just posted the article to the site


Friday 30th August 1940

Of the three fatalities I noticed that two victims were taken to Sheffield's Royal Infirmary and it was at the hospital that they died from their injuries some hours later. But ALFRED ASPINWALL died at his home at 25 St Stephens Road which seems to indicate that he died at the time the bomb hit the property. And so ALFRED ASPINWALL was the first person to die in Sheffield from an air attack in the Second World War. 

For those with a long memory I posted a blog in March 2014 regarding Sheffield's first air raid victim Frederick Stratford who died in the Zeppelin attack of September 1916  



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