Skip to main content

Salford in World War Two

Continuing our series of blogs on Salford City Council's burial and cremation records on the Deceased Online database, I discover some of those killed in the Manchester area by air raids during the Second World War.
Tree growing among the headstones in Agecroft Cemetery, Salford
Like many parts of the UK, the north-west of England was hit hard by air raids during the Second World War. One of the worst attacks was in the Manchester Blitz of Christmas 1940. Another heavy attack took place over Christmas 1944. During the war overall, 1,428 civilians from the Greater Manchester District were killed in the raids.

It's estimated that 215 people were killed and 910 injured in Salford during the Luftwaffe raids of 22nd and 23rd of December. More than 8,000 homes damaged or destroyed. On the 28th December 1940, the Manchester Evening News reported on the mass civic funeral of the victims at the Southern Cemetery in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The services were conducted by the Bishop of Manchester, the Bishop of Salford, the President of the Manchester Free Church Council, and the Communal Rabbi of Manchester and Salford. Members of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) accompanied the coffins. The Bishop of Manchester spoke of the city's, "deepest and most real sympathy at the loss of our loved ones."

The newspaper also reported that, by this date, "scores of the Manchester families, rendered homeless by the Blitz" had been, "reunited by homes found and furnished by the Manchester Corporation."

The Greater Manchester Blitz Victims website, dedicated to the memory of those who died, details a total of 1,428 civilians from the Greater Manchester District, Salford included Dr John Dudgeon Giles OBE and his wife Annie were among those killed when Hope Hospital was bombed. This was after Dr Giles had worked hard to transform Hope Hospital, "from a poor law institution to a well equipped medical centre." At the time of his death, Dr Giles was Medical Superintendent of the hospital. 60-year-old Dr Giles died in Hope Hospital on 23 December 1940, "as a result of enemy action".

Dr Giles was awarded his OBE for medical services during the First World War when he was medical officer in charge of Hope Auxiliary Military Hospital, Pendleton, Manchester. Mrs Giles was a nurse in Manchester before her marriage. They were survived by one son, a medical student at Manchester University.

Dr and Mrs Giles were buried in Agecroft Cemetery. More information about some of the people killed in the Greater Manchester air raids can also be found at the Greater Manchester Blitz Victims' sister site, Trafford War Dead.
Excerpt from the Northern Cemetery Register, Salford (now Agecroft Cemetery) showing the entry for John Dudgeon Giles
The records from Agecroft Cemetery are now fully searchable on the Deceased Online database.



As always we love to hear from you and if you have any stories to share from your family's experience of the Manchester Blitz or have a connection to any of the Salford cemeteries, please contact us in the Comments Box below or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Also, if you know the Salford area, do consider helping George on the Greater Manchester Blitz victims website. He needs local help and knowledge. 

Sources

The Scotsman, 24 December 1940, page 4

Manchester Evening News, 28 December 1940, page 1

Comments

  1. Looking for a record of Mary crestwell died 23 December 1940 or the 22 December 1940 she my Nana's sister

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i think you mean Mary Creswell. died at Hacking street on the Manchester Salford boundary line

      Delete
  2. There is no Mary Crestwell in the index on deceasedonline.com. Was that the name with which she would have been buried? Did she use another name at all?

    ReplyDelete
  3. do you mean Mary Cresswell who was killed on Hacking Street on the Salford Manchester boundary line

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London's Spa Fields

Deceased Online has just uploaded around 114,000 burial records from Spa Fields in the modern London borough of Islington Spa Fields today, with the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in the background Spa Fields Burial Ground became notorious in the 19th century for its overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Located in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, the grave yard was not far from the ever-increasing City of London. Spa Fields was known also as Clerkenwell Fields and Ducking-pond Fields in the late 18th century, hinting at a dark side to what was then a summer evening resort for north Londoners. What would become a cemetery was a ducking pond in the rural grounds of a Spa Fields public house. It was here in 1683 that six children were drowned while playing on the ice. In his History of Clerkenwell (1865) William J. Pinks wrote that visitors, "came hither to witness the rude sports that were in vogue a century ago, such as duck-hunting, prize-fighting, bull-baiting

Haslar and Netley Military Hospital Cemeteries

Following on from last week's post, I'm looking further into Deceased Online 's latest collection of burials. These military burials were digitized in partnership with The National Archives .  Two notable institutions in the collection are Haslar Royal Navy Cemetery and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley. Both Haslar and Netley (as it was more commonly known) were Britain's foremost military hospitals during the bloodiest years of war in the western hemisphere The Royal Hospital Haslar and Clayhill Royal Navy Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire The Royal Hospital Haslar dates from 1753. For over two hundred and fifty years Haslar served as one of main hospitals caring for sailors and marines of the Royal Navy and merchant services. Patients came from ships as well as from naval and seamen institutions in nearby Portsmouth and Gosport. The hospital closed as the last official military hospital in 2007. The Haslar Cemetery closed in April 1859 but the neighbouring Cl

Wakefield Collection: Cremation Records now available on Deceased Online

Records for both crematoria in Wakefield, Yorkshire have been added to the Deceased Online database Above: Pontefract Crematorium The two sets of crematoria records have been added to Deceased Online 's Wakefield Collection .  Wakefield district contains nineteen cemeteries and two crematoria. Many of the records go back to the mid and late 19th century when the cemeteries opened, and range across a wide geographical area. The full list of  Wakefield  cemeteries live on Deceased Online,  with opening dates in brackets,   is as follows: 1.  Altofts Cemetery  – Church Road, Altofts, Normanton  (1878)   2.  Alverthorpe Cemetery  – St Paul’s Drive, Alverthorpe, Wakefield  (registers from 1955) 3. Castleford Cemetery  – Headfield Road, Castleford  (1857) 4.  Crigglestone Cemetery  – Standbridge Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield  (1882) 5. Featherstone Cemetery  – Cutsyke Road, North Featherstone  (1874) 6. Ferrybridge Cemetery  – Pontefract Road, Ferrybridge, P