Home Front Letters WWII Bombing in Cambridge 1941
Letter from my great grandmother Ada Broom (formally Cruden, nee Hatchman) to her son George Cruden.
95 Oxford Road
Cambridge
Sept. 29th 1941
My Dear Son,
It was kind of you to write to let me know you got so far and how I want to know how you got on the rest of the way. Hope the old bit of rust was worth taking back; after our allway going wrong but they are useful. Sept. 30th Your letter just come and I will give him your letter, when I come home.
The bomb dropped at the back of Hospital and the pilot got killed and Sunday night they drop bombs from Oxford Road to Histon Road all fell in the road and the window was all broken and the front of the houses broken up. And now we have 102 buses come down our road also other vehicles it is quite the main road now, it shook me out of the chair and then all the lights went out and cables under the ground all went so you can guess people about him was a bit scared. We have had lovely weather here; a little rain today; Marie wrote and sent the some curtains, hope you get on alright with your full time job well dear take care of yourself
Love from all
Your loving mother
I found the colours pin just against the …. as if it fell of the piano when the baby pulled the cloth and have move the …. now
The other side of the room as they can’t climb ….
Comments:
j goodwin
23/1/2012 03:29:27 am
I alway knew I had a uncle killed by a bomb in Cambridge he was Charles William Brittain born about 1869 to Charles and Besty Brittain he was married to Susan Jane Bell 1892 reading the letter you printed gave me the answer .Not sure but I think he once had a shop on Castle Hill ??
Tim Harding
23/3/2023 08:44:43 am
A Sidney Brittain age 50 of 80 Castle Street Cambridge, died outside The Globe Pub in Hills Rd, on the night of Mon 24th Feb, in a Bombing raid aimed at Troop and munitions movements at the near by marshalling yard. It was believed to have been coordinated by a Dutch Nazi spy who killed himself when he realised Police were on to him
Tim Harding
23/3/2023 09:48:31 am
Check out names killed in raid on St Pauls Church Hills Rd
michelle
3/2/2012 11:09:18 am
thanks for your comments, you may be right about your uncle, although their were several bombing raids in Cambridge. You should visit the Cambridgeshire Collection which is in the Cambridge Central Library as they will be able to help you search the newspaper cuttings and your uncles name which may turn up more precise details. The hospital mentioned in the letter would have been the Old Addenbrookes Hospital which used to be on Trumpington Road, more central to Cambridge than the present day Addenbrookes.
Best regards
Michelle