Historian Andy Grant charts the devastating consequences of a World War Two bombing raid which killed the Rycraft family.

The weather on Friday, September 20, 1940 had been reasonably fair with scattered showers throughout the day and as night descended, the weather remained unsettled.

It had been a comparatively quiet day, with only spasmodic attacks by lone aircraft, although Londoners were by now familiar with the likelihood of the concentrated night-time attacks upon the capital.

A few days beforehand, Romford Council had recorded that the enemy were dropping bombs “blindly upon the capital from aircraft which approached singly or in small formations”.

On that fateful night a lone bomber, probably a Dornier Do17 "flying pencil", crossed the Thames on a north-west heading.

Its altitude and intended target are now unknown, but it appears to have been following the route of the Upminster to Romford train line.

The bombardier would have sighted the railway junction around a mile distant from the aircraft. Looking through his aiming sight, he carefully estimated the point at which he should release a cluster of bombs.

The momentum of the bombs conferred by the speed of the aircraft, versus the force of gravity and wind resistance, resulted in an arcing, downwards trajectory.

From the moment the bombs were released, the aircrew would have no further control or knowledge as to where the bombs would strike; they had already passed over the point where the impact would subsequently occur.

The first bomb from the plane’s deadly cargo hurtled to earth, narrowly missing the railway as it passed overhead, before impacting near the corner of Carlton Road and Junction Road.

The time was 11.50pm and thus far, the damage was limited to the shops in Carlton Parade.

Before the dust had settled, a second bomb landed in Kingston Road, again causing only minor damage.

With predictable regularity, the third bomb buried itself deep in the rear garden of Strathmore in Main Road.

Although the explosion created a large crater in the grounds of the former home of LF Stone, the proprietor of the well-known Romford store, it was being used as a boarding house at that time and fortunately remained largely unscathed.

The house is now an NHS Community Health Clinic, accommodating integrated care teams and district nurses.

The fourth bomb scored a direct hit upon a large detached house in Oaklands Avenue, completely destroying it. By some great fortune, the owners were away when the bomb struck.

Romford Recorder: Places where the bombs struck in Romford on September 20, 1940.Places where the bombs struck in Romford on September 20, 1940. (Image: Andy Grant)

Fifty-three-year-old Walter George Rycraft; his wife Kathleen Mary (nee Fleming), 51; and their two sons Gerald Bernard, 19, and Peter Bernard 15, were living at 42 Havering Drive, the lefthand property of a pair of semi-detached houses.

Walter had the foresight to have an Anderson shelter installed in the rear garden and the family regularly sought refuge there during the nightly air-raids.

However, a family of four sleeping in the cramped conditions of the cold, damp shelter was problematic, not least because Gerald’s frame of over six feet could not easily be accommodated in the bunk beds.

Perhaps it was due to the sporadic showers or maybe the lack of raids that had occurred during the course of that day that ultimately influenced the Rycraft family’s decision not to sleep in their shelter that night.

As the fifth bomb plummeted towards its point of impact, the Rycraft family were probably completely unaware of their impending fate.

The bomb scored a direct hit upon their house, the explosion tearing the house apart and instantly killing three of the family.

The house had completely collapsed into a large pile of rubble, but young Peter was surprisingly extricated alive from the debris by rescuers and rushed to hospital.

Sadly, his injuries were too serious and he succumbed in hospital shortly after being admitted.

Ironically, the Anderson shelter at the end of their garden was completely unscathed.

Whether the pilot of the plane turned to survey the outcome of that night’s bomb-run is unknown.

Footnote: Rycraft is also recorded as Rycroft.

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