206806 Leading Fireman Dennis Herbert Poole National Fire Service from:Malmesbury My father, Dennis Poole served in our local fire service at Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He served right through the WW2 and up until 1961.
I know one particular story he used to tell us and that was about an aircraft that crashed on the outskirts of Malmesbury. When Malmesbury Fire Service got to the site there was very little left of the plane and the bodies of the fliers had been buried in the earth with the plane. So the family of these airman could have coffins my father said they put stones into the coffins to weight as if they had bodies inside. I have recently learnt that this plane was an experimental plane and my father and his colleagues were told to keep quiet as to the sort of plane involved.
I am trying to get some information about another incident involving my father during WW2. It was during the blitz on Bristol and because of the scale of this blitz the fire service called in all the engines from as far afield as Malmesbury. When they got to Bristol they were told where to go and the raid was still going on. My father was up the top of one of the longest ladders and while he was up there fighting the fire there was a blast at the bottom of the ladder and when he descended the ladder he found a lot of his colleagues had been killed by the blast. I have been told he was awarded a commendation for helping his colleagues in the face of continuing during a raid. I am quite confident the story is true but would love to find some more information as to the award given to my father.
My father was also involved in saving a young boy's life from drowning after he fell into a river at the bottom of his house. For this he was awarded a resuscitation certificate from The Royal Humane Society in September 1943.
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