29th September 1942

Afternoon in Petworth, doing our Find Outer stuff at a disused and derelict chapel in Horsham Road Cemetery at the north end of the town. There is a current move to renovate the lovely little chapel and make an art gallery or something similar. But the access is very bad and only accessible on foot, and no one seems to know who owns it. We explored the old cemetery and came across this very moving grave and story.

In September 1942, a lone bomber came over Petworth and aimed 3 bombs at troops in the grounds of Petworth House. They all missed their target, but one hit a tree and ricocheted across the road, right into the local boys school. Of the 80 children at school that day, 28 were killed and many injured. The headmaster and an assistant teacher also died. The next door laundry was damaged and a woman working there was killed too. The number is big enough for almost everyone in Petworth at the time to have been touched by this horrific and totally freakish event.

Bishop Bell of Chichester conducted the mass funeral, and 60 years on another Bishop of Chichester, John Hind, officiated at a memorial service which was attended by some of the survivors of the bombing.

Although the cemetery is no longer in use today, and the chapel is in a very bad state, the path is mown to this memorial for the children and their teachers. I could only focus on one name, Peter Penfold, but all the children are remembered. Next to Peter is his brother Ronald.

Peter Penfold
Ronald Penfold
Allen R. F. Simmonds
Roy Gumbrell
Bryan D. Cross
David C. Moss
Donald E. Holden
John B. Morey
Frederick C. Bushby
Charles Hillman
Robert J. Shane
Ronald H. Speed
Edward C. S. R. Hamilton
Albert Burgess
Alfred C. Ayling
Brain C. Strudwick
George C. Hunt
Dennis J. Standing
Richard C. A. Stoner
Maurice W. Balchin
Dennis A. Richards
Keith R. Taylor
Mervyn A. J. Moore
Brian J. Moore
Walter S. Adsett
Alice K. Adsett
Paul Thayre