Memorial details

Memorial type
Composite
District
Elmbridge
Town
East Molesey
County
Surrey
Country
England
Commemoration
Second World War (1939-1945)
Ceremony
  • Unveiled
    Date: 30th June 1994
    Attended by: Chief Superintendent Laurie Doust unveiled the garden and metal plaque; attendees included survivors of the fatal incident, and a doctor who attended the wounded.
  • Placed
    Date: 2001
    Attended by: The Welsh Guards Regiment installed an inscribed tablet of Welsh slate on the memorial flower bed (supplanting the original metal plaque).
  • Show More (1)
Lost
Not lost
WM Reference
41566

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Current location

The slate tablet and rose bed are in the garden; the explanatory plaque is in the Members' Bar.
Imber Court (formerly the Metropolitan Police Sports Club)
Ember Lane
East Molesey
Elmbridge
Surrey
KT8 0BT
England

OS Grid Ref: TQ 14899 67037
Denomination: Undefined

View location on Google Maps
Description
Rose bed in the grounds of Imber Court, in the centre of which is a tablet of Welsh slate that has the Welsh Guards' crest etched at top-left and the names of 20 casualties in incised lettering. (In 2001 this slate tablet replaced a small metal dedicatory plaque on a wooden stand, that had originally been installed next to the rose bed). An associated plaque, explaining the origins of the memorial, hangs on the wall in the Members Bar inside the Imber Court building.
Inscription
(Slate Tablet): IN MEMORY OF/ 20 SOLDIERS OF THE TRAINING/ BATTALION WELSH GUARDS/ KILLED ON 30TH JUNE 1944/ AT IMBER COURT BY A VI FLYING BOMB/ (NAMES) (Explanatory plaque): Welsh Guards/ Training Battalion Commemoration Imber Court/ 30th June 1944/ During the Second World War, the Training Battalion Welsh Guards were stationed in Sandown Park. On the 30th June 1944 the battalion/ held its annual athletics event at Imber Court. During the course of the day a German VI Flying Bomb landed on the centre of the race track/ the explosion causing many deaths and serious injuries./ In 1994 a small garden of remembrance was founded in memory of those who were killed. In 2001 the regiment inaugurated a memorial/ stone made of Welsh slate, upon which are recorded the names of the eighteen Welsh Guardsmen and two other service personnel killed./ A remembrance service is commemorated at Imber Court on the last Sunday in June each year./ Welsh Guards/ (names)/ Army Physical Training Corps/ (name)/ A.T.S./ (name)/ Donated by Ray Isaacs in appreciation of the support given by the staff at Imber Court in the maintenance of the Welsh Guards Memorial and in memory of Sgt J.W. Isaacs who was present on the said day. (The original small metal plaque, erected on the rose bed in 1994, read): THIS ROSE BED IS DEDICATED/ TO THE TWENTY MEMBERS OF THE/ WELSH GUARDS TRAINING BATTALION/ KILLED AT THIS CLUB/ AS A RESULT OF ENEMY ACTION ON/ 30 JUNE 1944
Inscription legible?
yes
Names on memorial
Baker, G A M
Bristow, C A
Crofts, J A L
Fernihough, A
Fernyhough, J F
Field, C C
Glen, I G
Green, G H
Griffiths, T G
Hill, A G
See details for all 20 names
Commemorations
  • Second World War (1939-1945)
    Total names on memorial: 20
    Served and returned: 0
    Died: 20
    Exact count: yes
    Information shown: Military unit, regimental number, rank, initial, surname
    Order of information: Grouped by military unit, then listed alphabetically by surname
Components
  • Plaque
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Metal
  • Tablet
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Slate - Welsh
  • Plaque
    Measurements: Undefined
    Materials: Acrylic
Listing information
Condition
History
June 2021: A stone edging was built around the flower bed. June 2001: The small metal plaque was replaced with a Welsh slate tablet, inscribed with the names of 20 casualties./ 2000: A small metal plaque was mounted on a wooden stand and placed beside the flower bed./ 30/6/1994: The memorial garden and an associated plaque were unveiled, on the 50th anniversary of the date on which the casualties were killed.
Costs

Comments: The Welsh Guards Regiment funded the installation of the inscribed slate tablet on the flower bed. Ray Isaacs donated the information plaque that hangs in the Members' Bar of the Club.

Trust fund/Scholarship
No
Purpose: Unknown or N/A
Responsibility
Imber Court Sports Club
Reference
  • Kingston Informer 8/7/1994 (page 5) reported the unveiling: 'Bomb dead honoured 50 years on. THE VEIL of official secrecy has been lifted on a World War Two tragedy in which 40 [sic] soldiers were killed when a German V1 flying bomb landed on the Metropolitan Police sports ground in East Molesey. Survivors attended a commemoration at the Imber Court ground last Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the carnage. The dead, all Welsh Guardsman camped at Kempton Park racecourse, had been invited by the Met to a sports day. Another 140 people were injured. There is no record of any police officers or civilians being killed. The Government hushed up wartime incidents such as this to avoid undermining public morale. It was a chance remark by an elderly woman in 1992 that revealed the enormity of the flying bomb incident. The commemoration followed two years' painstaking research by Inspector Ray Ward, of the Mounted Police Section at Imber Court. and PC Nick Forrester, curator of the museum there. They managed to trace survivors, now in their 70s, in a bid to discover the full story of June 30. 1944. Inspector Ward said this week: "Eventually we pierced together what happened. We wanted the exact story. "When anything like this happened during the war it was hushed up. There are no records that we could find. "An old lady started talking about the flying bomb that dropped and it started from there" he added. Doctor George Tickler, who tended the injured at Thames Ditton Hospital met Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Moss and other survivors at the unveiling of a commemorative plaque last Thursday. Dr Tickler, now 88, of Western Green Road, Thames Ditton, who was accompanied by his wife Leigh, said: "It was a moving occasion." He told how he and his wife saw the flying bomb as they drove near their home on the way from Horton Hospital, Epsom, where he had been looking after the D-Day wounded. As the Vl's engine cut out they scrambled from the car and lay in a ditch. They felt the explosion. Then he drove to Thames Ditton Hospital where a large number of casualties had been brought in. He said: "It was a day I'll never forget. There were all sorts of nasty wounds but everyone remained calm. "It emphasized the horrors of war. Why can't disputes between countries be settled by discussion." A spokeswoman at the Imperial War Museum, London. said this week: "It was considered to be bad for morale if too much detail was divulged about flying bombs". A plaque was unveiled by Chief Superintendent Laurie Doust, president of the Metropolitan Police Sports Club'. www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002505/19940708/022/0005
  • The War Memorials Trust's record of this memorial can be found at www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/201936/
  • Welsh Guards Regimental Magazine 2020 (page 208); printed an article, entitled 'The Tragedy at Imber Court, Surrey', describing the VI Flying Bomb incident on 30th June 1944, including the recollections of Dick Fletcher, who witnessed it.
  • Unveiling Programme/ Order of Service 2000
  • The Imber Court Sports Club website has information re the memorial, and the event which led to its creation, see www.imbercourt.com/membership/history-of-imber-court/doodlebug-alley/

This record comprises all information held by IWM’s War Memorials Register for this memorial. Where we hold a names list for the memorial, this information will be displayed on the memorial record. Please check back as we are adding more names to the database.

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