Page 12 - October 2023

THE SALAMANDER
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 CompanyOfficer(ServiceNo.88)andhiscivilian occupation was an advertising make-up clerk.
He was killed, aged 35 years, when a bomb fell on Soho Fire Station on 7th October 1940. According to probate records his body was not found until 19th October 1940 and, when administration was granted to his widow on 20th January 1941, his effects totalled £380.
On 6th March 1941 he was posthumously awarded the British Empire Medal. This was a result of a recommendation by Frank Whitford Jackson, Deputy Chief Officer of the London Fire Brigade whose report read that Station Officer Wilson, who had been in the AFS for two-and-one-half years, “showed great devotion to duty and set an excellent example under very trying conditions at 14 fires which occurred between the 8th and 17th September 1940. In particular, he was of great assistance to his superior officers at the fires at Endell Street, New Bond Street and Rathbone Place.
At the latter fire, at personal risk, he endeavoured to extricate several persons who were trapped beneath the debris". Jackson’s recommendation was supported by two other officers. District Officer H.R. Lucas wrote, "Wilson displayed great initiative and resourcefulness at the series of fires which occurred between the 8th and the 17th September 1940. His assistance to me was of great value and he refused to spare himself in the carrying out of my orders, often working under difficult conditions until almost exhausted. At the fire at Rathbone Place, W1, he worked extremely hard at personal risk to extricate persons trapped. Wilson has since been killed on duty".
Acting Station Officer S. Pow wrote, "Wilson worked with me at numerous serious fires during the period 8th - 19th September 1940 and proved to be of great assistance in every way. He displayed great devotion to duty and when the fire in Rathbone Place, W1, he assisted to extricate persons from
Auxiliary Fireman Frederick Mitchell was born on 28th September 1911. Both he and his wife, Gertrude Florence Mitchell, were shown on the 1934 electoral registers as living in Lambeth. SE11. The Electoral registers from 1935 to 1939 show them listed at Gosling Way, Brixton. In the 1939 Register he was listed at the London Fire Brigade Sub- Station, 74 Newman Street, Marylebone. He also died, aged 29 years, on the 7th October 1940 after a German bombing raid hit the Soho station. Both men are commemorated on the National Firefighters Memorial opposite St Paul’s Cathedral and the London Fire Brigade WWII Memorial at the former Headquarters at Lambeth. SE1. They are also shown on the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939 -1945, located just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the West end of Westminster Abbey.
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