10
TWENTY YEARS AFTER
WENTY years ago our Home-
land was the midst of the four most tremendous years. of hor history.
Strange and parllous things hap- pened in those four years things of which the full facts were novor roally known.
'This is an article written by one of the actual survivors of the drama in which he was sud- denly called to play a part, and the events that will remain the outstanding memories of his life.
To-day the Galoty Theatre call- boy describes vividly the scenes following the Zeppelin raid on the Strand on the night of Oc- tober 18, 1915, when thirty- eight people were killed and eighty-seven injured.
|
By
James Wickham
(all-boy at the Galely Theatre
on the night of the raid.
1915.
October the Thirteenth, A moonless night.
London was apprehensive. Its mood was tense.,
Zeppelin warfare during the last moonless perfod fund ac counted for forty-four lives, had maimed 180 and caused damage in the City alone to the extent of £510.072.
air
Altogether nine of these fearful monsters had come and gone night after night-unscathed, almost unchallenged.
So for not one lind been brought
Our air de down on British Foll tence and combative forces in the r at this stage of the war were far from perfect
The Zeppelins seemed to be hay. ing things pretty well all their own way.
had
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1936.
An actual picture of the Zeppelin rail, drawn at the time by a "Sunday Express" artist,
who watchel it from the roof of the "Express" building.
I bought a paper.
cigarette, carefully screening
Dlly waited. "Gallant Serbin Hard Pressed," match. streamed the headlines.
"They say the Zepps are on way, the swine," I remarked.
Street vendors erled their wares by the feeble light of oil lamps.
London, capital of the Empire, everything in the way of pleasure to offer her sans on leave, Theatres were flourishing, "House Full" boards hung round their en- trances every night. At the Galety barrel-organ fumbled with the Voice we had been playing "To-night's melody of the moment-"Keep the the Night" to paciced houses,
What a striking contrast to the Some distant clock chimed gloom and dimness of the streets was the glamour within the throng- ing theatres.
Smart
Home Fires Burning."
hour of seven. Lurking Danger
the
That Was Unheeded
Soft lights glowed in their audi- foriums. There was the surge of London was rather "on edge." ilvely
tunetul music. Bewitching Yet, true to the "carry on policy choruses. Frivolotis sonys. Pro- of the British nation the West End, vocutive dancing.
A beam of light swung across the quips. Roemed, did not lack malety on war burlesques.
sky, And then others. They fantastic Chat Oclober night as 1 rande my
amid this crossed and recrossed in Almost Impossible way along the Strand to the Galety light-hearted galety to realise the patterns. Some of the people in the Theatre, where I had recently
a hundred streets occasionally glanced upwards horror being enacted pocured the post of callboy.
miles distant.
behind dows
khaki-In stalls,
In pit.
Of A
Descending
the
their
Bomb
Only four men were injured in the arsenal and eleven in the bar- racks,
When The Zeppelins Raided The Strand
At Hertford nine people were llled and Afteen Injured. Nearly two hundred houses were damaged, In Croydon nine persons were Within a mile of the Straud killed and fifteen wounded. nineteen bombs in all were hur
At Hythe a number of high ex- led. One hit a home for Belgian plosive bombs were dropped refugees in Aldwych,· Another Otterpool
soldiers Camp. Fifteen narrowly missed Somerset Ilouse, were killed and eleven injured. Another fell between the walls The Zeppelin commander had been of the Divorce Court and, Bank- attracted by the light of the camp
In
ruptcy Buildings, Carcy-street. fires. glass. It lay everywhere in mil.
Many of the beautiful sixteenth Hons of pieces.
century stained glass windows There was an old orange seller Lincoln's Inn Chapel were smashed who had
at the by a been standing
third. A fourth damaged the Lyceum Gray's Inn Hall gallery entrance to She lay huddled against the wall But nowhere in all the stlil clutching her wares. She was visited by the five airships that dead.
arcas
תם
In all, seventy-one people were killed in this attack and 125 in-
lisi Jured the largest casualty in any Zeppelin raid in propor- tion to the number of airships engaged and the total nimber of bombs dropped.
In London alone thirty-eight A man from the audience' hnd night-Hythe, Hertford, and Croy-
were people
killed, including hurried down the staircase into the son among them-was death and
destruction worse thon In the naveral children, and eighty-seven street when the firing began, leav- Strand.
injured, Damage was assessed at ing his wife in her scal. He never returned. He was instantly killed by a flying fragment of shell from our own nail-aircraft guns.
One man, terribly mutilated, yet still clutching a gloss and sandwich, was discovered hall inside and half outside a pubile-house whose walls had been shattered by the explosion. Theatres As
Dressing Stations
Nine other people in the saloon had been wiped out. A barmuld was killed.
When official help arrived it was fount that seventeen had been killed and twenty-one Injured by that one missile.
No single bomb dropped from a Zeppelin during the war claimed n greater death roll.
A fire had been started by a plece of bomb which penetrated a goa main. Flames leaping high lumin- ated the grim scene,
People from every part of Lan- don were pouring into the Strand. The rumour that between 400 and 500 people had been wiped out and many more injured in the raid had spread.
Ronds leading to the devastated areas had to be closed. No one was admitted except those engaged on the work of rescue and clearance.
were Ave Every theatre-there in the immediate vicinity-was used as a dressing station. Here, where taken the suddenly tragedy had place of the earlier hilarity, doctors attended to wounds.
There was Irony in the shrapnel- riddled boards that hung forlornly outside the Gafety Theatre proclam- ing "To-night's the Night."
As though my words had 16 leased ten thousand furies there
Mr. Lealle Henson worked was the sudden crackle of ani- valiantly to calm the audience when aircraft gunfire, and simultane the terrifle din occurred outside the ously a dreadful sound that Lon; theatre. don knew only foo well-a sound like no other on earth.
It was the mournful wall created by the velocity of descending bomb.
In the one brief terrible moment
we stood.
was not wrong.
How le the Zeppelin com- £80,000. manders knew of their position can
a gathered from the fact that one Shower Of
the 1.13 under Mathy-lew
the
Wooden Blocks
The rat was not without Its freak Incidents.
A piece of shrapnel from one of the bombs tore through the window of Miss Madge Saunders' dressing- room at the Galety Theatre, pene- trated a wardrobe and a dress hang- ing in it, and lodged in the woll.
Other fragments from the same bomb
the were hurled through stage door, shattering the legs of the chair on which Jupp was sitting. CD that the seat collapsed to the ground.
Jupp escaped with nothing worse than a shaking.
Wooden blocks thrown up from the roadways by the concussions were found on the roofs of build-
The crowd looking at the damage done by a bomb which fell in the middle of Wellington-street.
to
whole length of the barracks and ings within a hundred yards' radius Orchestra Plays
arsenal at Woolwich.
-some of them eight storeys high: There was room for a horse and Rollicking Tune Four high explosive and twenty-
eight incendiary bombs were drop- cart in the craters made in road- of ped, but it is quite evident that ways and pavements by many
of the vital the bombs. Many rose in alarm. Chorus girls Mathy was unaware
The voyage of the Zeppelin crews at the ever-moving shafts uneasily before the impact 1 instinctively stood transfixed on the stage. Some character of his target--hundreds of Restaurants were crowded. From Had it not been for the ubiqui But the majority went their
on its way the heavily-curtained win- tous
The L13, while in various ways unheeding. We Lon- knew it was coming directly where were on the point of running into soldiers and munition workers were was not without incident that night.
the streets in their flimsy attire. In the buildings-for, he passed on of the big hotels there came gallery-the war would have seemed doners are adaptable. the rounds of much merrymaking even more remule.
Groping our way about darkened
Mr. Henson saw all the dangers. and hurled anal missile on Plum- Woolwich, narrowly escaped colll- sion with the Li-commanded by IL exploded three yards, from the ordered the orchestra to strike slead Marshes. The popping of champagne corks.
our beverages the street, sweetening In the shadowy streets-for The pulse of dance music. Heady Defence of the Realm Act in
and buying the where we were standing. It fung up a rollicking tune; he led the girls. It fell alongside the powder Kapitonleutnant Bocker the lal- re with sacchurine,
exploded ter's return from Croydon.* the me against the wall next the
One man in L15 dropped his hat, laughter.
have
tremendous The would had entrance to the Strand Theatre. It in lively dance, he cracked jokes magazine, which had it loast, farewells, gard to lighting was being strictly diminutive Sunday foint with were
which fell at Charing Cross. jostled and aid of a food card that we enforced crowds
situation was saved.
damage and loss of life. shouldered.
accepted with characteristic stolcism. Sucked me back again. It dashed and struck comical gestures. Khaki everywhere.
In the majority we were necept. me to the ground.
Masonry fell. Newsboys vociferously proclaimed ing the danger that lurked above the latest news from the Front
moonless nights in the same Glass rained,
I felt unhurt. spirit.
Only dazed. I had been at the theatre for nearly an hour. "Overture and be
had been called. The ginners" curtain had risen on Act 1.
There
toars, promises, kisses.
Warl
To-night-lighty.
To-morrow-who cared?
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pit
shrapnel embedded in mc.
Yet I had twenty-two lumps of
They carried me downstairs into the bar of the Strund Theatre.
The streets were pandemonium. I asked for Billy.
But he had been blown to pieces. I could hear screams in the street) outside.
thud of
As I walked down the corridor breathing a sigh of relief that my duties were temporarily finished, the waves of laughter greeting the quips of Mr. George Grossmli and Mr. Leslie Henson reached me. London was enjoying itself. But then London did not know bombs. that three hours earlier on urgent
flashed from Omnibus message had been France to the War Offee that five
been had Zeppelins
noticed making for the Enst Coast,
The dull vibrant
more
Blown
To Pieces
-HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION.
$20,300.000 Authorised Capital layed and Pulls Paid-up. 20,000,000
Reserve Funda-
Sterling
€ 4,500,000 Hongkong Currency Reserve $10,000,000 Reserve Lability of Proprieturi 120,000.000 HRAD OFFICE:—NONGKONG, BOARD OF DIRECTORA.
Hon. Mr. J. J. Paterson,
Chairman.
.. Makin. Ex-
Deputy Chairman,
Hon. Mr. W. H. Belt, J. R. Mammo. En
X. B. Morrison, Esq. A. Ji, Compton, faqj Hon. Mr. S. II. Dodwell, T. F. Pearce, E Hon. Mr. M. T. Johnson A. L. Shield, Ex..
V. M. GRAYBURN ...
Others were brought in and Init AMOY
BANGKOK
I heard it from Jupp, the stage- door
often keeper. We
heard things of that kind at the Gaiety. beside me. Marconi House is next door.
Searchlights
Some were moaning,BATAVIA some calling for missing friends and BOMBAY relatives,
CALCUTTA CANTON CHEFOO
Some one rushed in and sald London General omnibus had been COLOMBO Raked The Sky blown to blis In Aldwych opposite DAIREN
the Waldorf,
in
It was true. More
FOOCHOW HAIPHONG HAMBURG In.ANKOW injured were brought They were earrled on theatre HARIIN
HONGKEW 166120
By now air chiefs would be
Anti-aircraft gun- grave conclave. stations would have been warned. Pilots were standing by their boards, machines, Police, the fire brigade
workers ambulance
and
rendy.
. But the West measures.
End pursued
were
There was the ring of ambulance fron bells, the imperious clang of fire OHORE alarms. And above i nil terrible, 59B6
KOWLOON Its Insistent thudding.
"Suppose they're
coming again
to-night," grumbled Jupp,
10
I glanced out of the door across
More bombs.
Death,
Destruction.
Would they never
the west. There was a perfect agonising rain of death?
trellis of searchlight beamg raking
the blue-black sky.
CHIEF MANAGER.
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Caused
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Current Acemints opened and Fixed De posits received for one year or shorter periods at rates which will be quoted on application. The Bank's Head Offen in London under- takes. Executor & Trustee business and claim recovery of Itritlab Income Tax overpaid, on
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Current Accounts opened in Local Currency and Fixed Deposits received for one year or
Currency and Alexandria this shorter cease
periods In Local Stering on farma which will be quoted on Banakuk
Batavia appilension.
They held every card up there. It was so easy for them.
The stories of that night are ter-
The pavements were crowded. Shadowy groups gossiped rible ones,
and
·
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Elongkong, 18th Aprii, 1910
HONGKONG SAVINGS BANK,
Honakung
Itanzoon
Heinking
Ile de
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Bun Franclace
Bombay
London
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Nagak! (Mukden} Nadya
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Interest Allowed on Current Accounta Deposits received for fixed periods at ralen to be obtained on application
G. KISHINAMI,
The Zeppelin-it was the L15 on! at street corners. Oranibuses
The Busines of the shore Dank la con- ||Tambura taxicabs, dimly lit, loomed up from her maiden voyage to England
herself into line doted by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Hankow enshrouding bad manoeuvred and receded into the
with the Strand and travelleding Corporation Rules may be obtained on arbin gloom.
A clock struck nine.
directly eastwards, dropping bombs application,
FOR THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI DANKING CORPORATION Twenty minutes to go to the first at short intervals.
V. M. GRAYBURN. Jaterval.
Two fell barely a second before
Chief Manager. one that hit me in a
Uparkonu. 20h February, 1974, to the the street running parallel
and Strand between the Lyceum Just rum aeross the 'post with Covent Garden. these leliers, Jimmy." he "We've a special rehearsal call for Old Orango the morning and they must go off to-night."
A few minutes later I heard my the
It was name being called. stage manager who wanted me.
sold.
As I went out of the stage door
I met Billy, the page.
narrow
HONG KONG SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN.
The total Expenditure in 1938 on behalf of alck and destitute children is estimated at Woman's Fate $22.000, against which the Income to date is
$20,000 only.
"Come over to the post with me, The little street was crowded.
In order to continue its work, the Society
| Billy," I said. Ho Wos a bright As the first bomb exploded peonie asks for the balance of
little Ind of fifteen; I was three were flung in all directions. years older.
One
$2,000
woman was blown to pieces. An before the close of the flanelal year Only too glad of a little relaxa- other was cut in two by a sheet 31st October.
Hon, Treasurers: ition. he readily agreed.
Mr. A. McKELLAN, C.A.,
The nearest pillar-box was at the top of Catherine-street, which Hes immediately opposite the stage door of the Galety, and together crossed Aldwych and made way alongside the Strand Theatre, I stopped a moment to light a
We
our
of gloss blown from a shop front
When those in the vicinity who were unhurt recovered sumetenlly to lend help they found thirty- eight peonis prone on the pave- ment, in, the roadway or the gut- ters.
All around was the gillier of
c/o Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co.,
P. & O. Building. Mr. KWOK CHAN,
c/o Banque de L'Indo Chine,
Hongkong. September 15, 1030
on
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