Memorial in Erith Cemetery

Image: © Marathon Taken: 2 Jul 2010

This memorial to 12 women munitions workers and their male foreman who were killed in an explosion on February 18th 1924 is to be found near the entrance to the eastern part of Erith Cemetery in Brook Street. They worked at the WV Gilbert munitions works based in wooden huts on Crayford Marshes in Slade Green. It was a former Trench Warfare Filling Factory and Messrs. W.V. Gilbert were a contractor to the Disposal and Liquidation Commission. As the women sat at their work table breaking down Verey light cartridges, a fire set off a series of huge blasts among the explosive cartridges. Hero of the hour was foreman Edward Jones, 29, from Dulwich. As the burning building was rocked by explosions, he went back into the blazing ruins and was killed by one of the blasts as he carried a woman away from the scene. The youngest victim was just sixteen years old. The full story can be seen here https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/4155024.erith-wv-gilbert-munitions-disaster-remembered/?fbclid=IwAR1tqMO8WxqwgLFiHx7k_xzDVg-_glpGNUGFBwcpScwK8fJVexjchGB0z2I The inscriptions at the base can be seen at https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6736731 and https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6736734 and https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6736751

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