© John Clarke 2014-
John Clarke
Historian of Brookwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery and the Second World War
West Norwood Cemetery and the Second World War
By Peter Hodgkinson and John Clarke
Published by the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery, 2025
Paperback, with 220 pages, and many illustrations (mostly in colour)
Price: £7.50 (plus postage)
ISBN 9781910722220
In case of any difficulty in ordering, please feel free to contact me.
The companion volume to Norwood and the Great War, this 220-
This book describes the lives of those who are either commemorated or who are buried in West Norwood Cemetery. The focus in this volume is on the civilian casualties who significantly outnumber the military casualties. The opportunity for exploring local issues is limited because the news reported in the papers was severely restricted by censorship.
At Norwood there are 70 burials or cremations of service personnel from the Second World War. Thirty four deaths are also known to have been commemorated on family graves, although there are likely to have been more. The two Screen Wall memorials, which flank the original First World War memorial at the main entrance to the cemetery record the names of 13 personnel buried in common graves and 18 cremations, neither category being marked by headstones. There are also at least 161 civilian war dead buried or cremated at Norwood, outnumbering the service war dead by more than 2:1.
All these war dead are described in this volume and in most cases illustrated where the authors have been able to locate a surviving memorial. Additionally there are a number of introductory notes on the Second World War and the German aerial offensives against the United Kingdom. There are also a number of topical articles covering various aspects of the war and the experience of civilians.
Contents
The cost in lives of the Second World War
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Dead of the Second World War and Norwood Cemetery
The Second World War -
The British Army across the world in the Second World War
The German aerial offensive against Britain
The loss of family memorials and bomb damage in the cemetery
Gazetteer
About the authors
Cemetery map
Articles within the Gazetteer
Shelter deaths
Trench shelters
Far East prisoners of war
The raid of 10/11/May 1941
Surface shelters
Sheltering at home
‘The Wednesday’
Deep shelters
The ‘Baby Blitz’
Air raid precautions
ARP warden Stanley Rothwell at Thorne Road, Vauxhall
ARP warden Stanley Rothwell at Brixton Road
ARP warden Stanley Rothwell on ARP companionship
The Home Guard
The ‘Blitz Spirit’
Firewatchers
The Non-
VE and VJ celebrations