Memorial to honour forgotten victims of the Blitz: Bangor attack in 1941 saw five dead and 35 injured
A memorial to some of Northern Ireland’s overlooked victims of the Blitz is to be built in Bangor.
The Co Down seaside city was attacked by the Luftwaffe twice during the Second World War, once in 1940 and once in 1941 – the latter as part of the infamous and devastating ‘Easter Tuesday’ overnight strike that saw over 200 bombs dropped on Belfast.
In Bangor, five people were killed and 35 injured in that second air raid, which saw explosive and incendiary devices dropped on residential areas.
Yet to the best of anyone’s knowledge, the dead and wounded have never been properly marked – until now.
Ulster Unionist politicians have spearheaded a move to build a permanent memorial to those who lost their lives to the lethal payloads of the German air force. They aim to see it constructed in major local landmark Ward Park, which is already home to Bangor’s war memorial honouring fallen soldiers.
Starting around 1am on April 16 in 1941, the Easter Tuesday raid destroyed six houses on Ashley Gardens to the east of the city; in one of them, three members of the Grattan family, mother Matilda and daughters Shelagh and Angeline, were killed.
At Hazeldene Gardens, roughly one mile away, 60-year-old Margaret Byers Watt fell victim to the bombs; in nearby Baylands, Robert Wright was seriously injured, and died in hospital the following day.
Flying south-east over Bangor after they had already attacked Belfast that night, the Luftwaffe blew out windows in a seafront hotel and damaged homes on Ranfurly Avenue, Knockmore Park, and Farnham Road.
The grounds of Bangor Golf Club were also hit, battering its fairway and clubhouse where shrapnel blasted a hole in a painting that honoured the heroism and sacrifice of the 36th Ulster Division at the Somme during the First World War.
The devastating legacy of the Easter Tuesday raid is still felt among the older generation in Bangor, who remember the scars it left on both lives and streets.
But there hasn’t been anywhere for the town to publicly remember the dead, a situation area politicians Pete Wray and Katherine Newman want to change.
During a recent council meeting, the Ulster Unionist pair won unanimous support for their idea of constructing a new Blitz memorial.
Stating that a currently under construction Belfast memorial won’t mention the seaside city’s fatalities, Mr Wray told the meeting: “It’s up to us to put that right and acknowledge victims in Bangor.
“Beside the war memorial in Ward Park there is a plaque that mentions the Easter bombings, but no names are detailed there.
"These people were parents, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. Remembering their names helps keep their stories alive.”
Ms Newman added that a new memorial would “allow future generations to understand the Blitz is not something that happened somewhere else; it reached Bangor, and ordinary people paid the ultimate price”.