William Watson
Air Raid Warden
from:Islington
My grandfather was an air raid warden in Islington in 1940. His name was Bill Watson. Attached is a copy of a newspaper article from The Daily Mirror, 9th September 1940.
"As bombs burst all around, the windows of the little house blew in and the roof collapsed, a young air raid warden acted a midwife to a mother in the East London raids. A thirteen year old boy acted as nurse. Without a light to see by, the warden, Bill Watson who is unmarried, brought the baby girl into the world. The boy, Richard Hannaway ran to the nearest horse trough for water, which was boiled to wash the baby in. The mother, dark haired Mrs R Foster lay on her bed surrounded by shattered glass as Warden Bill attended her. At the same time a heavy bomb crashed across the road about eighty yards away and blew the roof from the house. Now mother and child are both doing well and yesterday a few hours after the ordeal, Bill, who had had a wash and a brush up, went along to visit them.Thirteen year old Richard was busy too, He was fetching and carrying buckets of water from the nearby horse trough for neighbours."I have never done anything like this before" said Bill."
I would love to find out more about him but there is nobody alive in my family who would be able to give more information. We know him as Bill Watson, though the family story from my father we only know that he was a "foreigner", possibly Jewish. He left Bristol with my grandmother before. For sometime she lived in Lewisham on her own at 20 Moreley Road, a place for single mothers and their babies. She returned about 1938 with a baby and my great grandmother brought my father up as her own. The only leads we have is a newspaper cutting from The Daily Mirror dated September 9th 1940 stating that Bill Watson was an Air Raid Warden and "acted as a midwife" for a "dark haired" Mrs R. Foster, who gave birth during an air raid in the East of London. He safely delivered a little girl. The birth would have probably taken place on 8th of September 1940 and would have been registered in East London. There was also a 13-year-old boy who helped by the name of Richard Hannaway. However he doesn't appear to be related to anyone in the story.
We believe Bill Watson lived in East London approximately from about 1934/35 with an Iris Maud Lawrence, before leaving her with a baby. Through some research we have found that he could possibly have lived at 34 Pigott Street, Limehouse, but this has not yet been confirmed. If anyone does have any information, I would love to hear about him.
