Folkestone Remembers: Hellfire Corner, 90 Years On

Folkestone salutes today its debt to those who fought for their country at the Town's service and parade at the Folkestone War Memorial at the top of Folkestone's Road of Remembrance.

All Folkestone residents are invited to pay their respects at the ceremony starting at 10.40am, which includes the traditional Silence and Wreath Laying at the War Memorial, followed by a short Service. This year also marks the ninetieth anniversary of the May 1917 air raid on Folkestone that saw 71 people killed.

During the First World War Folkestone was host to some 65,000 Belgian refugees and from 1915 was the main embarkation point for soldiers leaving to fight in the trenches of France and Belgium.

After the summer of 1914 holiday makers disappeared, to be replaced by boatloads of refugees fleeing the conflict on the Continent. Soldiers increased in number, many stationed at Shorncliffe Camp while others were housed in requisitioned boarding houses and hotels.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, including many Canadian troops, left from Folkestone, marching from the Town to the Harbour along the route now called the "Road of Remembrance".

Folkestone itself suffered severely during the First World War. Only in Autumn 1916 did the Germans develop twin engine aeroplanes, making bombing attacks from aeroplanes a serious possibility.

On Friday May 25, 1917 low cloud over London caused a 21 strong wave of Gotha bombers to abort a raid on London. The Luftstreitkräfte aircraft turned for home and detached their bombs mainly in the Folkestone district, killing 95 people and injuring more.

The aeroplanes approached the town from the west and attacked Hythe, Shorncliffe Camp, the west end of Folkestone, Central Station and Bouverie Road East. They then made their way to the town centre and here the majority of the fatalities occurred when one of the bombs made a direct hit outside Stokes' Brothers greengrocers in Tontine Street (near the Brewery Tap pub and new University Centre building).

The majority of those killed and injured that day was caused by the six bombs which fell on Tontine Street - almost all from the hit to the greengrocers. Nearly 60 were killed instantly. Many others died later from their injuries, and over 100 suffered wounds.

The Fire Brigade, Red Cross, Ambulance Corps, and Police were soon swamped by calls for help, and the Canadian Army Medical Corps and the Special Police were brought in to help with the removal of the dead and to rescue the injured. The cemetery and Royal Victoria Hospital mortuaries were soon filled, and the military hospitals at West Cliffe and Shorncliffe were also used for the injured.

The total number killed was 71: 16 men, 28 women and 27 children.

Outside Folkestone itself there was also massive bombing that day: 19 bombs fell at Lympne, 19 at Hythe, 2 at Sandgate, 16 at Cheriton, and 18 at the military camps at St Martin's Plain, Dibgate and Shorncliffe.

At Shorncliffe a total of 18 soldiers, including 16 Canadians, were killed and 90 more were wounded.

There is much more detail, including names of those killed and injured, at http://tinyurl.com/2zknrv

During the Second World War, Folkestone also suffered great damage. 123 people were killed, and 778 injured. 550 houses had been destroyed, 10,000 properties damaged, and 37,000 people had left the area.