HO 250/9/314 - Case Number: 314. Name: Grace Rattenbury. Age: 40. Occupation: Centre Leader WVS, Bermondsey. Brief Summary of Ground for Recommendation: Determination and courage evacuating women and children from Docklands fire at Rotherhithe, [London] on 07 September 1940.
UK, WWII Civil Defence Gallantry Awards, 1940-1949 Name: Grace Rattenbury Birth Year: abt 1901 Age: 40 Residence Year: 1941 Residence Place: London Meeting Date: 13 Jan 1941 Meeting Place: England I suspect that this may be her but it shows born in 1904 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 Name: Grace Hilda Rattenbury Registration Year: 1904 Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep Registration district: Camberwell Parishes for this Registration District: View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District Inferred County: London Volume: 1d Page: 967 Grace Hilda Rattenbury 1904–2005 BIRTH 19 JUL 1904 • Walthamstow, Essex, England DEATH APR 2005 • Hastings and Rother, East Sussex, England TD
Thanks Guy I wasnt sure at all, but went for the London born being the higher possibility England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 Name: Grace Dewhirst Rattenbury Registration Year: 1900 Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun Registration district: Leicester Parishes for this Registration District: View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District Inferred County: Leicestershire Volume: 7a Page: 214 England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 Name: Grace Dewhurst Rattenbury Death Age: 89 Birth Date: 24 Apr 1900 Registration Date: Dec 1989 Registration district: Cambridge Inferred County: Cambridgeshire Volume: 9 Page: 967 TD This is what annoys me about Ancestry - their record (shown in Guys post above) is transcribed by the 'people' at Ancestry as: Name: Grace D Rettenbury Gender: Female Marital Status: Single Birth Date: 24 Apr 1900 Residence Year: 1939 Address: 58 Overstrand Mns. Residence Place: Battersea, London, England Occupation: Social Worker Invalid Ch?? Civil Association Schedule Number: 197 Sub Schedule Number: 1 Enumeration District: ABBK Registration district: 23-1. Household Members: Name Grace D Rettenbury Mabel Bradshaw
On September 7, the first day of the Blitz, a bomb struck a railway arch on Linsey Street. Because shelters had not been built in enough numbers by this stage, the arch was crammed with many people. When the bomb hit the crowded and weak shelter, 23 people died and dozens more were injured. That same night, 29 other people were killed at Keeton School, which was being used as a rest centre. The site in Keeton Road suffered a direct hit, with horrifying consequences. The Blitz in Bermondsey - Southwark News
From your article - so British "During one incident, a bomb devastated Hawkstone Road, leaving a huge sixty-foot crater. When the dust settled, a lone Anderson shelter was spotted still standing on the very edge of the crater. Out of it emerged an elderly lady who, after calmly taking in the destruction of her surroundings, shouted to her friend below: “There you are Emily – I told you it was a bomb!” TD
Royal Voluntary Service heritage blog: Enquiries, Catalogues and Heroes I thought I would finish off with a little bit about one of five WVS members who received the George medal for Bravery during WWII, something I came across while doing an enquiry the other day. Some of you may already know Grace Rattenbury’s story, but others may not. Grace was a member of Bermondsey WVS and with little regard for her own safety assisted in the evacuation of women and children from the Surrey commercial docks in Rotherhithe at the beginning of the London Blitz in September 1940. The docks were alight and the fire threatened to cut people off from the mainland. There was only one singles span bridge left, and the road was extremely dangerous because of the growing fire, bomb damage and delayed action bombs. In spite of all this Grace using a WVS van maintained a shuttle service between the docks and the first line Rest and feeding centres, until every woman and child had been evacuated. She not only managed to rescue fleeing families, but also firemen who had been injured fighting the flames. The van on her return was full of steel helmets, blood-soaked bandages and a fireman’s axe, and other marks of a very heavy nights work. Grace Rattenbury TD
