On 17 April 1941, a bomb left over from Army training on the Cotswold hills killed six children in Worcester Street, Cheltenham. It is one of the saddest wartime stories in the town, and it is still remembered 85 years on.
How the bomb was found
A 14-year-old boy and some friends found the trench mortar bomb on a training area near Cleeve Hill. He tried to set it off by throwing it at rocks. When it did not explode, he decided it was harmless and took it home. For several days it became an object of wonder among the younger children near the lower High Street.
The explosion
Three days after the bomb was found, a group of children gathered on open ground in Worcester Street. The boy tried to break it open with a hammer. It exploded. Five children were killed outright, including the boy. Another child, seven-year-old Beryl Lewis, was critically injured and died in hospital that afternoon. An eighth child escaped with minor injuries and shock.
The funeral
More than 2,000 people attended the memorial service and burial on Monday 20 April 1941. St Peter’s Church was full, and many hundreds of people stood outside in silence. Five of the children lie side by side in Cheltenham Borough Cemetery. Trevor Wellings, aged five, is buried in a family plot there.
Remembering them
The story has resurfaced this Remembrance week in a short film that retells the events of April 1941. The names of the six children and details of the inquest are still recorded by local historians and family history researchers.
Practical information
- The children are buried at Cheltenham Borough Cemetery, and their graves are still tended.
- Anyone researching a relative who lived in Worcester Street or Elm Street in 1941 can look for records of the inquest held at Cheltenham Police Station on 10 May 1941.
