Head's Newsletter 13 November 2020

ACT OF REMEMBRANCE, 11 NOVEMBER 2020

The unit was on daily callout and was moved to East London to deal with the increasing number of unexploded bombs, or UXBs in the docks.

On 5th October they were called to deal with a 100kg UXB which had landed in the front garden of 121 Connor Road, Dagenham, one of five hous- es in a terrace on a 1930s estate. The sappers were called upon to dig around the bomb so that the two officers, including William, could get to the detonator to defuse the bomb. The bomb turned out to be a new type with two anti- disturbance detonators, and exploded shortly after the two officers started work.

From World War Two, we remembered William Foster. He was born in 1902 and attended Tiffin School between 1914 and 1918. He was a mem- ber of the school’s Scout Troop. After leaving school, he was apprenticed to a surveying firm in Kingston and qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1925. He was involved in some of the survey work for the new A3 Kingston bypass opened in 1927. In 1938 he joined the Officers’ Reserve of the Ter- ritorial Army, which in the event of war would be called up. He was assigned to the Royal Engineers and duly called up in September 1939. In September 1940, the Germans began to bomb London, in what became known as the Blitz, and William was assigned to No 5 Bomb Disposal Company, part of 33 Royal Engineers Regiment, at Acton, West London. William’s training in Bomb Disposal was very much on the job.

The force of the explosion from such a huge bomb killed the two officers and three of the sappers. All remaining six sappers in the unit were injured, five so seriously that they were discharged from the Army. The terrace of houses was destroyed and a further 100 houses damaged. Today there is a small plaque on the front of 121 Connor Road recording the names of the five men who died. William was buried with full military honours in St Nicholas’ Churchyard, Thames Ditton, leaving be- hind a wife and son. For reasons of morale, the cause of his death was not made public at the time, except that he had died on active service. He was 38 years old.