Page 11 - October 2023

History & Heritage
A timely and emotive article by Dave Pike, ex-Divisional Officer I, who retired from the LFB in 1996 and who is a popular and respected award winning author of several books on firefighting:
The bombing of London’s AFS Sub-station, Rathbone Place, 18th September 1940.
The first Soho Fire Station was originally built in 1888 for the London Salvage Corps in Shaftesbury Avenue. The station housed four horse-drawn salvage traps and was able to accommodate the families of the salvage men and officers in its six-storey structure. The station was sold in 1921 to London Fire Brigade and the building was modified to accommodate three motorised fire engines.
On 18 September 1940, just after the start of the Blitz, Soho’s Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) Sub-station at Rathbone Place received a direct hit from a bomb. The building was virtually demolished and seven members of the AFS were killed. Firefighters Harry Errington, John Hollingshead and John Terry were sleeping in the basement of a three-storey garage being used as an air raid shelter close by. Errington risked his own life trying to save his colleagues. For his bravery Errington was awarded a George Cross by King George VI on 21 October 1941. He is one of only two firefighters in London to have received this honour.
The bombing of Soho Fire Station, 07th October 1940
Shortly after, a bomb directly hit Soho Fire Station on 7th October 1940, killing a LFB Station Officer and an AFS firefighter.
Station Officer Leslie William George Wilson, B.E.M., was born on 11th December 1904 in North Hackney. The 1911 census he described as a schoolboy living in four rooms at Lancell Street, with his parents and younger brother. In 1931 he married Ethel Kathleen Pringuer in the Stoke Newington registration district. Their son, Michael J. Wilson, was registered in the 1st quarter of 1932 in the Stepney registration district. Electoral registers from 1935 to 1939 show them at Edmonton, next door to his wife's parents and siblings.
Whilst the 1939 England and Wales Register lists his wife at 70, Blakesware Gardens, Edmonton, he is listed at Clerkenwell Fire Station. Rosebery Avenue, EC1, where he was recorded as an AFS Company Officer (Service No. 88) and his civilian occupation was an advertising make-up clerk.
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