Upper North Street Memorial 13th June 1917,Poplar Park,Poplar.East London

Upper North Street Memorial,Poplar Park,Poplar.East London

On the 13th of June 1917, on the first day of German aircraft bombing in daylight, this stray bomb hit a Poplar primary school close to the dock targets, causing one of the saddest tragedies of the First World War. The school, Upper North Street School, had three floors of classes. Girls were on the top floor, boys on the second and infants on the ground floor. The bomb made a direct hit, scything through the top of the building and down to the ground floor where it exploded.

Most of the 18 children who died in the raid were from the infant class and were between four and six years old. It is thought that around 37 other children were injured in the blast, some of them badly. Teachers and other school staff bravely shepherded their classes to safety afterwards and many of the children watched as the bodies of their classmates were then carried out of the building.
Poplar Upper North Street WW1 School Disaster

 

How the slaughter of 18 London school children in a German bomber raid led, 100 years ago this week, to the birth of the RAF




Hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded and a primary school in Poplar, in the East End of London, was hit by a stray bomb intended for the nearby docks.

It scythed down through the three-storey building and obliterated an infants class of four to six-year-olds on the ground floor, killing all 18 of them.

The school caretaker carried out the body of his own son. A pupil who survived recalled the headmaster calling the register the next day and weeping every time there was no answer to a name.

The little ones’ funeral was deeply emotional, with 15 of the victims buried in a mass grave.

Rumour had it that the last coffin in the procession to the cemetery contained body parts that could not be identified.

Six hundred wreaths were laid and a message of condolence from the King was read out.

After the mourning came rage, with a public outcry for something to be done.

Rioters and looters took out their anger and despair on foreign-owned premises. Egged on by an affronted Press, the public demanded air defences against the enemy and reprisals against German cities — which, with other priorities, neither the RFC nor the RNAS could supply.





: How the slaughter of 18 school children in a German raid led to the birth of the RAF 100 years ago | Daily Mail Online

 

Newspaper report from "The West Cumberland Times".

 

Site of the Upper North Street School Poplar

 

Upper North Street School Bombing Victims Poplar 13th June 1917