
It was 106 years ago today that Scarborough came under naval bombardment during the first world war.
Today a memorial plaque has been unveiled on Wykeham Street to the Bennett family who lost three generations of their family in the attack.
Wayne Murray runs the "From Scardeburg To Scarborough" museum , which celebrates Scarborough's social history, from the buildings and streets that are no longer here to the people long gone. He has been raising funds for several years to install memorial plaques around the town.
In a social media post ahead of today's unveiling Wayne said.
"out of all the plaques for victims , this one will be particularly poignant for me , with three generations of the one Scarborough family being killed in their home. Out of seven people in the house that morning only 3 survived .....
This morning should be about respect and remembering the Bennett family, it has been a long year trying to achieve this plaque, with the generosity of those that donated towards it and Andy Law and the residents of Ashurst Residential who very kindly did a sponsored walk to raise over £100 towards the plaque ....
Thank you everyone that helped , I could not manage to recognise these victims with memorial plaques without you."
Wayne has already started fundraising for next year's plaques. He hopes to install two plaques on Westbourne Road one for the bombardments youngest victim, John Ryalls who was aged only 14 months who was killed along with Bertha McIntyre.
The other plaque will be for Mr. John Hall, who at 65 years old was the oldest victim of the bombardment.
All three lived on the same side of the same road only a couple of doors apart .
Wayne added.
Please , please , please donate what you can , as every little can make such a big difference in achieving these plaques ....
I get no funding or grants towards them , it is solely down to the generosity and goodwill of people's donations ....
Wayne's GoFundMe page can be found here Fundraiser by Wayne Murray : Scarborough bombardment plaque , Westbourne Park (gofundme.com)
This illustrated talk given by Keith Johnson in 2016 shows the impact the bombardment had on the town and how there is very little physical evidence of the event left to see today.
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