1936-10-15 — Page 10

TWENTY YEARS AFTER

TWENTY years ago our Home-

land was the midst of the four most tremendous years of Jer history,

Strange and perilous things hap- pened in those four years— things of which the full facts were never really known. 'This is an article written by one of the actual survivors of the drama in which he was aud- donly called to play a part, and the events that will remain the outstanding memories of his life.

To-day the Gaiety Theatre call- hoy describes vividly the scenes following the Zeppelin raid on the Strand on the night of Dċ- ober 13, 1915, when thirty- eight people were killed and eighty-seven injured.

By

James Wickham

Call-boy at the Gaiety 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 Lust moonless period had ac counted for forty-four lives, had naimed 180.and caused damage. in the City alone to the extent of - £10,672,

Altogether

Fone

BARAGWANATH

THE HONGKONG" TELEGRAPH. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1986.

An actual picture of the Zeppelin raid, drawn

at the time by a "Sunday Erpresa" artist,

who watched it from the roof of the "Express" building.

.

London, capital of the Empire, had everything in the way of nine of these fearful plensure to offer her sons on leave. al monstera had come and

Theatres were flourishing. "House eight after night-unscathed, almost Ful boards hung round their en-

challenged.

trances every night. At the Galety we had been playing "To-night's the Night" to packed houses,

the

What a striking contrast to gloom and dimness of the streets was the glamour within the throng-

So far not que had been brought

Our air de va on British soll. fences and combative forces in the nint this stage of the war were far from perfect.

The Zeppeling seemed to be having theatres, Ing things prelty well at their own ,way.

Soft lights glowed in. their audi- toriums. There was the surge of London was rather "on edge.” lively lunetal music. Bewliching Pro- Yet, true to the "carry on" policy

songs. of the British nation the West End,

quips.

miles distant.

I bought a paper.

cigarette, carefully screening "Gallont Serbia Hard Pressed," match: Billy waited.

"They say the Zepps are on streamed the headlines.

way, the swine," I remarked.

the their

Street vendors crled their wares by the feeble light of oil lamps,

A barrel-organ fumbled with the Voice Of A melody of the moment-"Keep the Home Fires Burning."

Same distant clock chimed hour of seven. Lurking Danger

the

That Was Unheeded

Descending Bomb

there

When The Zeppelins Raided The Strand

Only four men were injured in the arsenal and eleven in the bar racks.

A. Heritord nine people were killad and fifteen injured. Nearly two hundred houses were damaged. In Croydon nine persons were killed and fifteen wounded.

Within à me of the Strand nineteen bombs In all were hur

At Hythe a number of high ex- fed. One hit a home for Belgian plosive bombs were dropped on refurces in Aldwych Anoilier Otterpool Camp, Fifteen soldiers narrowly missed Somerset Hound, 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 ruptcy Buildings, Carey-street, fires.. glass. It lay everywhere in mil-

Many of the beautiful sixteenth In all seventy-one people were lions of picces.

century stained glass windows in

ked in this attack and 128 fa- There was an old orange seller Lincoln's Inn Chapel were smashed Jured--ilis largest casualty Hist who had been standing at the

In any Zeppelin raid in propor- gallery entrance to the Lyceum. by a third. A fourth damaged

tion to the number of airships She lay huddled against the wall Gray's Inn Hall.

But nowhere in all the areas engaged and the total number of all clutching her wares. She was visited by the five airships Unt bomba dropped, dead.

night-Hythe, Hertford, and Croy- In London alone thirty-eight A

had man from the audience

and people

were killed, including hurried down the staircase into the don among them-was denih

destruction worse then in the several children, and elglity-seven street when the firing began, leav Strand..

Injured.. Damage was assessed at

Ing his wife in her seat. He never returned. He was instantly, killed

How litle the Zeppelin com- £80,000.

by a flying fragment of shell from manders knew of their position con

be gathered from the fact that one Shower Of our own anti-alveraft guns.

One man, terribly mutilated, yet tlic. L13 under Mathy-lew still clutching n glass and sandwich, was discovered half inside and half outside public-house whose walls had been shattered by the explosion. Theatres. As

Dressing

Stations

Nine other people in the saloon had been wiped out. A barmaid was killed.

When ofetal help arrived it was found that seventeen had been killed and twenty-one injured Ly that one missile.

No single bomb dropped from a Zeppelin during the war claimed a Creater death roll.

A Ore had been started by a piece of bomb which penetrated n Kus main, Flames leaping high illumin- nted the grim scene.

People from every part of Lon- don were pouring into the Strand. The rumour that between 400 and 600 people had been wiped out and many more injured in the rald had spread,

Hloads leading to the devastated areas had to be closed. No one was ndmilled except those engaged, on the work of rescue and clearance.

were five 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 Galety Theatre proclam- As though my words had

Ing "To-night's the Night.".

worked Icased ten thousand furies

Leslic Mr.

Henson was the sudden crackle of anti- valiantly to calm the audience when aircraft gunfire, and simultane the terrific din occurred outside the ously a dreadful sound that Lon-- theatre. don knew only too well—a sound like no other on eartit.

It was the mournful wall created by the velocity of a descending bomb.

In the one brief terrible moment

we stood.

I was not wrong.

Orchestra

Plays Rollicking Tune

the

Wooden Blocks

The rald 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 Gafety Theatre, pene- trated a wardrobe and a dress hang- ing in it, and lodged in the wall.

Other fragments from the same bomb were hurled through the stage door, shattering the legs of the chair on which Jupp was sitting, that the seat collapsed to the ground.

So

Jupp escaped with notifing worse than shaking.

Wooden blocks thrown up from the roadways by the concussions were found, on the roots of bulld-

The crowd looking at the damage done by a bomb which fell in the middle of Wellington-street.

choruses, Frivolous

whole length of the barracks and ings within a hundred yards' radius -some of them eight storeys high. arsenal at Woolwich, vocative dancing. Smart

A beam of light swung across the

There was room for a hurse and then sky. And

others. They it neemed, did not lack gaiety on War burlesques,

Four high explosive and twenty- eight Incendiary bombs were drop- cart in the craters made in road- of that October right as I made my

Almost impossible amid all this crossed and recrossed in fantastic

ped, but it is quite evident that ways and pavements by many way along the Strand to the Gairly light-hearted galely to realise the patterns. Some of the people in the

of the vital the bombs. Theatre, where had recently horror being enacted a hundred streets occasionally glanced upwards

at the ever-moving shafts uneasily before the impact I instinctively

Many rose in alarm. Chorus girls Mathy was unaware

The voyage of the Zeppelin crews secured the post of entiboy.

Restaurants were crowded. From Had it not been for the ubiqui-

But the majority went their knew it was coming directly where stood transfixed on the stage. Some character of his target-hundreds of

were on the point of running into soldiers and munition workers were was not without incident that night. The L13, while on its way to We Lon- behind the heavily-curtained win- tous khaki-in stalls, in pit, in various ways unheeding:

In the buildings-for he passed on the streets in their flimsy attire.

narrowly escaped colll- dows of the big hotels there came gallery-the war would have seemed doners are adaptable:

Mr. Henson saw all the dangers, and hurled a final missile on Plum- Woolwich,

sion with the L14-commanded by he sounds of much merrymaking. even more remote.

Groping our way about darkened : It exploded three yards from

It fell alongside the powder Kopitarleutnant Bocker the lot. The popping of champagne corks.

In the shadowy streets-for

the street, sweetening our beverages where we were standing. It flung He ordered the orchestra to strike stead Marshes,

and buying the re with saccharine, The pulse of dance muste. Heady Defence of the Realm Act in

pil up a rollicking tune; he led the girls the me against the wall next the

One man in L15 dropped his hat, The would have caused tremendous gard to lighting was being strictly diminutive Sunday joint with

and struck comical gestures.

which fell ut Charing Cross. and aid of toasts, farewells, enforced crowds jostled

a food card that, we had entrance to the Strand Theatre. It in a lively dance, he cracked jokes magazine, which had It, exploded ter's return from Croydon.

damage and loss of life. situation was saved, accepted with characteristic stoicism, sucked me back again. It dashed tears, promises, kiszea,

shouldered.

Khaki everywhere.

In the majority we were accept me to the ground. Newsboys vociferously proclaimed ing the danger that lurked above on-moonless nights--in-the-same the latest news from the Front.

spirit.

Baughter.

There

Warl

were

To-night-lights.

·

To-morrow-who cared?

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Masonry fell. Glass rained.

I felt unhurt Only dazed,

Yet I had twenty-two lumps of The shrapnel embedded in me.

for I had been at the theatre nearly an hour. "Overture and be- ginners"! had been called. curtala had risen on Act I.

As I walked

down the corridor breathing a sigh of relief that my duties were temporarily anished, the waves of laughter greeting the quips of Mr. George Grassmith and Mr. Leslie Henson reached me. London was enjoying itself.

They carried me downstairs into the bar of the Strand Theatre.

The streets were pandemonium. I asked for Billy.

But he had been blown to pieces. I could hear screams in the street outside.

The dull vibrant thud of more.

But then London did not know bombs. that three hours earlier an urgent message had been flashed from Omnibus France to the War Ofee that five Zeppelins had been noticed maklag for the East Coast.

I heard it from Jupp, the stage- door keeper. We

often

heard

Blown

To Pieces

AND

SHANGHAI

HONGKONG

BANKING CORPORATION;

Authored Capital

$20,000,000 ed and Pully Paid-up....... 20,000,000 Beserys FunỦA →→→

Berling... $.500.000 Ilangkong Currency Reserro $15,000,000 Reserva Liability of Proprietare $20,000,000 HEAD OFFICE HONGKONG. BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Flon. Mr. J. 3, Paterson, Chairman.

G. Madn, Eng.. Deputy Chairman,

J. Massa, E Hon. Me. W. H. Bell, A. II. Cotrpton, E, K, Morrison, E Iton. Mr. S. II. Dodwell, T. E. Poarce, Esq. Hon. Mr. M. T. Johnson A. T. Shields, Eati

V. M. GRAYBURN E., CHLEY MANAGER, BRANCHES:-

Others were brought in and laid: AMOY

BANGKOK things of that kind at the Galety. beside me. Some were moaning, BATAYIA

some calling for missing friends and Marconi House is next door.

relatives.

Searchlights

Raked The

Some one rushed in and sald London General omnibus had been Sky blown to biis in Aldwych opposite

the Waldorf.

Στι

It was trun.

ROMNAY

CALCUTTA CANTON CHEFOO cOLOMBO

DAREN

POOCHOW HAIPHONG ITAMBURO

More injured were brought in. HANKOW They were carried on theatre ARBIN

boards.

By now air chiefs would be grave conclave. Anti-aircraft H

HONGKEW stations would have been wained.

ILUILO Pilots

standing by their were

There was the ring of ambulance fron machines. Police, the fire brigade bells, the imperious clang of fire 100 ambulance warkers were alarms. And above it all a terrible, ODE

and

ready.

But the West End pursued pleasures.

its insistent thudding.

"Suppose they're coming again to-night," grumbled Jupp.

I glanced out of the door across

Death.

More bombs.

Destruction.

Would they

never

cease

this

10 the west. There was a perfect agonising rain of death?

They held every card up there. trellis of searchlight beams raking It was so easy for them. the blue-black sky.

pavements

were

still

The stories of that night are ter

The crowded. Shadowy groups rossiped rible ones.

gloom..

England-

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Incorporated by Royal Charter 1855,

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AGENCIES AND BRANCHES- ALON STAR, ILOILO

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PENANG, RANGOON

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Foreign Exchange and Generat Rankin business transacted,

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The Bank's Hend Once in London under- fakes Executor & Trustee business and claima recovery of Brillal Income Tax overpaid, on terms whleb may be ascertained at any of Ia Agencies & Branches.

THE YOKOHAMA SPECIE

BANK, LIMITED.

Capital (fully-paki-up) ....... X.109,000,000 Fenerve Fund T.100,000,000 HEAD OFFICE-YOKOHAMA, Branches and Agencies at

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-Current Accounts opened in Local Currency and Fixed Deposits revived for one year or

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ALSO up to date BAFE DEPOSIT DOXES Berlin (in various alses TO LET.

Rangoon

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Hongkong, 18th April, 1936.

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FOR THE HONGKONG_AND_BHANGHAI DANKING CORPORATION.

V. H. GRAYBURN,

. Chief Managore / Elongkong, 4th February, 1916.

and The Zeppelin-it was the L15 on) at street corners. Omnibuss taxicabs, dimly it, loomed up from her maiden voyage to

enstouding had manoeuvred herself into line anated by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank- Harkow and receded into the

with the Strand and travelleding Corporation. Itules may be obtained on Harbin directly eastwards, dropping bombs pileation. A clock struck pine.. Twenty minutes to go to the first at short intervals

Two fell barely a second before Interval,

one that hit me in a the street running

to parallel Strand between the Lyceum "Just run across to the post with Covent Garden. these letters, Jimmy," he said. "We've a special rehearsal cult for Old Orange the morning and they must go off to-night."

A few minutes later I heard my the

It was name being .coffed.

stage manager who wanted me.

As I went out of the stage door

I met Billy, the page.

HONG KONG SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN,

The total Expenditure in 1030 on behalf of sick 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. Billy," I said. He

was.a

In order to continue its work, the Society

bright As the first bomb exploded people asks for the balance of

Ono little lad of Oficen; I was three were flung in all directions.

years older.

$2,000

An- before the close of the financial year on

31st October, sheet

woman was blown to pieces. Only too glad of a little relaxa- other was cut in two by a tion, he readily agreed.

of glass blown from o, shop front.

When those in the vicinity who were unhurt recovered aufiolently to lend help they found thirty- eight people prono on the pave- ment, in the roadway or the gut- tern.

All around was the giliter of

The nearest pillar-box was at the top of Catherine-street, which lies Immediately opposite the stage door

and together of the Galety, crossed Aldwych and made way alongside the Strand Theatre. I stopped a moment to light a

we

our

Hon. Treasurers:

Mr. A. McKELLAR, CA..

c/o Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co.,

P. & O. Building.

Mr. KWOK CHAN.

c/o Banque de L'Indo Chine,

Hongkong. September 30, 1930.

Manager.

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