Enid's friends

Enid Sykes

Jan Gore

Enid and her friends at King's (Enid is second from the right in the back row)

Jan Gore

My mother's friends and the Guards' Chapel incident

By Jan Gore

In June 1944, Enid Sykes was 20. She had left her home in Yorkshire to attend University, the first of her family to do so. She was now in the second and final year of her degree course; she was studying French, Latin and Spanish at King’s College London. She had spent the previous year in Bristol, where King’s had been evacuated in 1940. Two months after college began, she met a fellow student, Alan Mitchell, at a dance; this was the start of a relationship that would last fifty-two years, until her death in 1994.

Alan graduated in the summer of 1943 and went to work as a government scientist near Bournemouth. Enid remained in London to finish her studies. She had made a couple of good friends on her course, Nesta Powell and Jean Williams; they were often mentioned when she talked of her college years.

She was given rented accommodation (“digs”, as she called it) in Earls Court, at 28 Penywern Road. It’s a tall building (now a hotel), part of a white stucco terrace behind Earls Court tube station, and it would be an easy journey by tube from there to King’s at the Aldwych. Gradually she got to know the other residents; three of them, in particular, became friends, and she would talk of how they used to go for walks together; they used to explore the splendid Gothic Brompton Cemetery, off the Old Brompton Road.

On the morning of 18th June 1944, her three friends decided to go to morning service at the Guards' Chapel. The music there was especially fine. Perhaps they asked Enid to accompany them. However, she was studying hard for her final examinations and was indifferent to both music and religion; she had French and Latin to revise. Did they agree to meet later?

But they never came back.

Enid was my mother. She rarely spoke of what had happened. All she would say was: “One Sunday my friends went to the Guards' Chapel. They never came back”. She never said their names.

The story has haunted me over the years, and when I realised that I was now working not far from  the rebuilt Guards' Chapel, I went there to see if I could find any more information about the incident. I saw the memorial plaque on the wall, and the two books of remembrance (one military, one civilian). The Chapel office gave me a list of those who died and I started to investigate.

The three women from 28 Penywern Road who died were Beatrice Gardner, Margaret Norris and Marjorie Souter.

Beatrice Isabel Gardner was born in late 1921 in Hendon. She was the daughter of Ernest Harry and Louisa Kate Gardner (nee Merhmann) of 48 Hillfield Avenue, Wembley. In 1944 she was working as a wages clerk; her father was a fitter’s mate.

Margaret Ellen Norris was born in late 1921 in Eastry, and was the daughter of George John and Margaret Norris (nee Gardner), of Godmasham, Lewisham Road, River, Dover. In 1944 she was working as a clerk, as was her father. Margaret’s mother was the elder sister of Beatrice’s father, so the two women were cousins. They were also the same age. Perhaps this is why they ended up sharing digs?

Marjorie Souter was aged 30. She was the daughter of Mrs Harvey (formerly Souter) of the Square, Kintore, Aberdeenshire. In 1944 she was working as a munitions worker. I have been unable to find any more information about her so far.

I believe their deaths had a profound effect on my mother. She would never say any more about the incident or its aftermath, and she never gave any details about the friends she lost. Once, when I was talking about a close friend, she asked “But why do you care so much about your friends?” I was bewildered and distressed by her question, but perhaps a quotation I found recently explains it.

”You didn’t get involved with people, because people were dying, and you couldn’t cope with it....So although you had friendships, they were surface friendships. They could be deep, but you didn’t allow yourself to think too much about what was happening”.

Frank Wilcox, contributor to “Lost resort: memories of wartime Bournemouth”

I am glad to have been able to identify Beatrice, Margaret and Marjorie at last. My mother’s story has prompted me to compile brief biographies for all 124 people who died as a result of the Guards' Chapel incident. I would be very interested in hearing from friends and families of those involved.

For details of the Guards' Chapel V1 attack on 18 June 1944 see Bomb Incidents page