WW2 Air Raid Precaution Logs

One of the gems of the St Margaret's Village Archive are the nine Air Raid Precaution Logs which provide a minute by minute account of the main events in the village during the Second World War. The log books are reputed to have been saved from a bonfire by Mrs Jean Melhuish.They date from 1st Sept 1939-June 1945
The village ARP post was based at the Cliffe Hotel. Initially it was under the command of an army man, Major Hornsby, but when he retired in 1941 it fell to the Manager of the Hotel, Charles Groves, to run the Post. Groves and other civilian volunteers painstaking recorded every shell and bomb and aircraft that fell on the village that they had knowledge of.They also issued portable shelters and provided coordination for any incidents. Their first duty was to report to the central control room at Kearsney in Dover.
The logs reward careful reading. In amongst the daily record of people coming on and off duty and long lists of air raid warnings are entries such as
'13.00 Jan 10th 1941. Mr Chapman reports Spitfire down in flames between Bockhill Farm and Hope Farm .Pilot having bailed out'

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