THE Commonwealth War Graves Commission roll of civilian deaths during the Second World War lists 23 people as being killed in the Barrow Blitz in the period from May 8 to 10 in 1941. 

They included an air raid warden, a first aider and volunteer firewatchers - who would have taken turns on night duty at public buildings to deal with incendiary bombs, armed with a bucket of sand and a stirrup pump. 

The age range of those falling victims to the bombing in that dramatic three-day period was just 14 to 76. 

Many of the deaths show that air raid shelters were no defence against a direct hit – people being killed in refuges in Vernon Street, Hall Street and Newland Street. 

A total of 67,092 civilian deaths from the 1939 to 1945 conflict are listed in a roll of honour kept in the St George’s Chapel of Westminster Abbey, London. 

MAY 8: 

A bomb falling on the air raid shelter at Vernon Street killed husband and wife Richard Brocklebank and Sarah Ann Brocklebank. Richard was aged 46 and his wife was 52. 

The family home was at 11 Exmouth Street. 

Mother and son James and Sarah Halfpenny were also casualties at the Vernon Street shelter. 

James was aged 42 and his 63-year-old mother was the widow of Patrick Halfpenny. 

They both lived at 24 Vernon Street. 

Also killed at the Vernon Street shelter was Sheila Mary Redman, aged 22, of 22 Vernon Street. 

She was the daughter of Elizabeth and the late Mr J. Redman. 

Volunteer fire watcher Thomas Marten Cooke was killed at the East Shop in Vickers Shipyard. 

The 54-year-old lived at 8 Lincoln Street with wife Annie Cooke. 

John Duxbury, aged 65, died at 6 Hall Street. 

Christopher Fieldhouse, aged 20, was a First Aid Patrol member who would have been called on to treat casualties pulled from the wreckage of bombed houses. 

He was killed at Buccleuch Dock. 

Mr Fieldhouse was the son of Mr C. S. Fieldhouse and Mary Jane Fieldhouse, of Rawlinson Street. 

MAY 9: 

Betty Knight, aged 24, of 36 Newby Terrace is recorded as being injured in Barrow and dying at North Lonsdale Hospital. 

She was the wife of Eric Cowell Knight. 

John McManus, aged 65, died at 228 Duke Street. 

MAY 10: 

Irene Biddulph, aged 23 died at 6 Hall Street. 

She was the daughter of J. R. Biddulph, of 84 Schneider Road. 

William Harper, aged 55, was killed at 1 Hall Street. 

George Brown was killed by a bomb falling on the air raid shelter at Newland Street. 

The 53-year-old lived at 5 The Strand. 

John James Higginson, aged 44, was a volunteer fire watcher from 5 Hindpool Road. 

He was also killed at the Newland Street shelter. 

Mr Higginson was the husband of Ellen Margaret Higginson. 

Another to be killed in the same shelter was Robert William Mulholland. 

He was a 52-year-old fire watcher of 3 Hindpool Road and was the husband of Marion Mulholland. 

Edward Simpson, 53, lived at 6 Hindpool Road but was another victim of the bomb which fell on the Newland Street shelter. 

From the same address in Hindpool Road was Robert Smith, aged 27, and Mary Ann Sawrbrick, 71 – both sheltering in what they thought was relative safety in Newland Street. 

Husband and wife Robert and Elizabeth Ann Howie died at 8 Hall Street. Robert was aged 76 and his wife was 74. 

Their home was 41 McClintock Street. 

Teenager James Rawcliffe, of 6 Hall Street, died in the Hall Street air raid shelter. 

The 14-year-old was the son of Harry and Jane Ellen Rawcliffe, of 27 Heeley Road, St Anne’s on Sea. 

Another to die at the Hall Street Shelter was Edward Fisher, aged 72, of 6 Hall Street.

Ernest Edward Shipton died at his home in 33 Newland Street. 

The 67-year-old was an air raid warden.