When the air-raid sirens sounded on the night of 7th May 1941, Sheila Redman must have been able to persuade her mother, Elizabeth, to go with her to the bomb-shelter at the back of Vernon Street. Her mother was usually reluctant to leave their house at 22 Vernon Street, because she felt safer there. 

I know this because my mother, Patricia McSorley (née Murphy) was a close friend of Sheila, and she told me they had often discussed how to get their families to shelters when the raids started. Both lived with their families in the town centre, close to streets and industries that had been bombed.

By 2.30am on the morning of 8th May, Sheila was dead – killed by a direct hit on the shelter. Her severely injured widowed mother died a few days later. Both would have lived if they had stayed at home. 

The Redmans were in the second group (of six), of a total of twenty-one civilians killed by the bombs that hit Vernon Street, and its shelter, in April and May 1941.

The first tragic loss happened on 14th April; when fifteen people died. It was during that raid that Barbara Carr, only 9 months old, was killed; along with her mother, Edna Carr (aged 25), and her father, 28-year-old Frank Carr. Barbara was the youngest victim of the Blitz in Barrow.

It was a horrible coincidence that Vernon Street was hit twice; the bombings resulted in the largest number of fatalities in one street in Barrow: nineteen from Vernon St, and two people from Exmouth Street.

No wonder then that on the 40th Anniversary of the Barrow Blitz, my mother’s eyes filled with tears as she recalled the moment she heard of Sheila’s death – and the further devastation caused on Vernon St.  

Mine is just one small recollection of a story from the war generation. There are many thousands of such stories that could be told by those who know people who lived through the war.  It is important they are recorded.

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The following information is from the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It names those killed in Vernon Street – their home addresses, where they died (if at home, or in an air-raid shelter), and their date of death.

• BROCKLEBANK, RICHARD – lived 11 Exmouth St, died 8th May, at Vernon St Shelter, aged 46.
• BROCKLEBANK, SARAH ANN – lived 11 Exmouth St, died 8th May, Vernon St Shelter, aged 52.
• CARR, BARBARA MAY – died 14th April, at 44 Vernon St, aged 9 months.
• CARR, EDNA MAY – died 14th April, at 44 Vernon St, aged 25.
• CARR, FRANK HARDING – died 14th April, at 44 Vernon St, aged 28.
• HALFPENNY, JAMES – lived 24 Vernon St, died 8th May at Vernon St Shelter, aged 42
• HALFPENNY, SARAH – lived 24 Vernon St, died 8th May at Vernon St Shelter, aged 63
• HANNAN, ROSINA – died 14th April, at 42 Vernon St, aged 45
• HANNAN, WILLIAM CHARLES – died 14th April, at 42 Vernon St, aged 25
• HANNAN, WILLIAM JOHN – died 14th April, at 42 Vernon St, aged 49
• MARSH, ETHEL RACHEL – died 14th April, at 38 Vernon St, aged 26
• MARSH, JOHN ENOCH – died 14th April, at 38 Vernon St, aged 72
• RANKIN, ELIZABETH – died 14th April, at 48 Vernon St, aged 55
• RANKIN, JOHN – died 14th April, at 48 Vernon St, aged 58
• RAVEN, EDITH – died 14th April, at 46 Vernon St, aged 36
• REDMAN, SHEILA MARY – lived 22 Vernon St, died 8th May, Vernon St Shelter, aged 22
• REDMAN, ELIZABETH – lived 22 Vernon St, seriously injured 8th May at Vernon St Shelter, died a few days later,  aged 51
• ROGERS, AUDREY – died 14th April, at 40 Vernon St, aged 4
• ROGERS, HARRY – died 14th April, at 40 Vernon St, aged 42
• ROGERS, MARY MARIA – died 14th April, at 40 Vernon Street, aged 83
• ROGERS, MILLICENT JANE – died 14th April, at 40 Vernon St, aged 41

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Like many small terraced streets, there are no photos of Vernon Street before the war. The photograph taken in April 2021, shows the flats built to replace houses destroyed during the Blitz. These back onto Collingwood Street. Homes immediately opposite on Vernon Street were also destroyed due to bombing, and houses damaged on Napier St too. 

A 1970s image of Collingwood Street, showing the gaps where houses were still to be rebuilt after the bombing of a shelter in the back street of Vernon Street.