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Heroism at the Hall


When the Luftwaffe Dropped In…

Village halls can have their darker side. A train crash in Devon turned one hall into a temporary mortuary. An inquest into a potential murder case was once held at a village hall in Northumberland. In the 1940s, deaths were liable to occur within the halls themselves…

In September 1940, Dorothy May White was working as a V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Nurse in Colgate, Sussex. Her actions during an air raid earned her the George Medal – this extract from The Times explains what happened:

V.A.D. White, with two other V.A.D.s, was on duty at the village hall when a high explosive bomb was dropped on the cottage next door, demolishing it. The three V.A.D.s found the nurse in the crater badly injured and with great difficulty they lifted her onto a stretcher and carried her to the village hall.
A bomb then fell directly onto the village hall, demolishing the end where the injured nurse lay, killing her, fatally injuring one of the V.A.D.s and severely injuring the other. With no thought for herself, V.A.D. White scrambled over the debris and found the two injured members partially covered by fallen rubble. She gave first aid with the help of a tourniquet made from her belt…”

Apparently, after helping the ambulance crew to remove her colleagues to hospital, she then dodged further bombs while making her way through the village to offer first aid help where it was needed. Her own home suffered damage but she continued to help other villagers over the days following the raid.

A deserving recipient of the George Medal indeed.



The is the Google Maps view of the current Colgate Village Hall - looks like a prefab replacement for the bombed out original

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