Auxiliary Fire Service

On our last visit to Lowestoft we brought back some bits and pieces from Mum's house which included a shoe box with some of Dad's things... One of these things was the AFS button which he must have held onto since the war.

Dad's family lived in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and Dad  at the age of 15 or 16 was a messenger for the AFS based at the fire station in Landguard Road. On Sunday 3rd January 1943 at about 4pm four Focke-Wulf 190 (German fighter bombers) flew low over the town and dropped their bombs and fired off their canons as they returned towards France. The fire station was destroyed and nine firemen, one firewoman and two  messengers were killed, by chance my Dad was not there.


He never said much about this, except that he had lost two of his pals there. Two boys like him doing their bit... The records show that Robert William Attrill (16) and Lawrence Eldridge (17) were the two messengers that were killed that day.