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Proprietors of Hay's Wharf. Here we had eight separate bays, each
with two beds, in the basement of the Wharf. It was staffed by the
nurses from our own department and, during the short period in
which it was in use, when the flying-bomb attack was at its height,
this post was invaluable. A somewhat remarkable coincidence might
be mentioned here as a matter of interest in connection with flyingbombs.
On 23rd June, 1944, one of these missiles struck a ship in
the Surrey Commercial Dock. Five men were killed and three
injured. The vessel went to sea and returned to the same berth
about three weeks later and was again hit by another flying-bomb,
when six men were killed and twenty injured. The flying-bombs
did enormous damage to property, though the number of casualties
caused by them was not so high in this Borough as in neighbouring
areas.
One incident occurred on August 4th, 1944, which caused an
immense amount of trouble and discomfort to many people and a
good deal of anxiety to the staff. On this date a flying-bomb struck
Dudin's Wharf in Bermondsey Wall, where about nine thousand tons
of grain, linseed and ground nuts were stored. Fire broke out and
lasted several days, the walls of the wharf collapsed and both
Bermondsey Wall and Loftie Street were completely blocked by an
enormous mass of wet grain, linseed and nuts mixed with the charred
debris of the building. The upper end of Loftie Street and the
ground floor rooms of the houses there were covered to a depth of
three feet with wet grain which had been carried along by water
from the fire-hoses; grain had completely blocked the sewer
for the whole length of the street. The weather was warm
and a plague of flies was anticipated and, indeed, was present almost
at once. Great difficulty was experienced in obtaining labour and
transport; deodorants and disinfectants applied to the grain gave
but little relief from the plague and tended also to destroy what value
remained in the grain as poultry food. It was six weeks before the
nuisance was substantially removed and more than six months before
it was finally and satisfactorily cleared.
A good deal of damage was done to other wharves and food stores
in the Borough at various times and large quantities of food damaged
in this way, and by enemy action at sea, came under the control of
the Food Inspectors. In these cases there has always been conflict
between the natural desire to save as much precious food as possible
and the duty of protecting the public from unsound and contaminated
food. When there was doubt we always erred on the side
of safety. One curious incident happened in the spring of 1940,
which still remains unexplained so far as I know. Two ships came
into one of the wharves with bacon. Both had been stopped, taken
into an enemy port and kept under guard for a week while the cargo
was discharged and investigated. No one knew what was the object
of the seizure nor why the ships were released, but everybody