John Gleeson was one of the 83 victims of the Luftwaffe raid on the Brooklands factory on 4th September 1940. There’s more information here, and you can read an eye witness account if you check out Bill’s comment at the end of this post.
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Hello, still waiting for info. re the field gun l shall let you know more when I am able Having seen the Weybridge post, it reminded me of the Wednesday lunch time raid by a group of M E 110 fighter/bombers on the Vicker’s factory. Standing at the junction of Long Reach and East Lane in West Horsley I saw all hell break loose as low and high flying raiders tried to escape, our fighters and ack ack were chasing them towards the coast Two parachutes came floating down, followed by a smoking 110. Looking North I watched it hit the ground further down Long Reach about a hundred yards North of Admiral Pelly’s Brown House. The aircraft had gone straight in. There was not much to see when I got there. Later I worked with two people who had been on the receiving end of the raid.
Eric Butcher was a toolmaker who joined the RAF in protest, as a pathfinder navigator and Charles Bovill an electronics wiz was found wandering miles away with ears and nose bunged up with plaster. Is there a memorial to those who died there?
Hello Bill. Time to own up now: the Exploring Surrey’s Past website is actually based where I work, so they came to me to ask if I knew anything about the field gun! The only way, I suspect, we are going to find anything about it is in the local papers and that will be a long job as we don’t even know how many years we need to look through.
Your story (as they always are) is fascinating. There is a memorial in the Brooklands museum remembering 83 civilians who were killed and 419 who were injured during the bombing raid of 4th September 1940.
Frank Finlay and his wife, Doreen are buried here. They were both theatrical veterans at West End and other stage performances while Frank also acted on screen for films and television. Their talents were very great.
Oh I remember Frank Finlay, although I did not know he is buried here. Cassanova was very educational for a teenager!