Died December 16th 1942
Emily Jane Trevett, nee Thorner, was born in 1875, in Burton Bradstock. Her parents were William and Amelia (nee Wrixon) and she had six siblings – Joseph, George, Frederick, Bessie, Florence and Henry, who was born in 1887. Unfortunately, this year also saw the death of Emily’s father aged just 52.
In 1901 the family were still in Burton Bradstock. Mother – Amelia was an outworker, braiding nets for the local rope and twine industry at home while Emily, Bessie and Henry, were all similarly employed in the local mills. Joseph was a fisherman and Florence was a domestic servant in a hotel.
In 1903 Emily married Henry Trevett in the local parish church and by 1911 they were living with their three daughters – Gladys, Freda and Dorothy at 27 Church Street in Bridport. Two more daughters followed – Edith and Ethel. They moved again, this time to 98 East Street, but in 1921, Henry died, leaving Emily a widow at 56
By 1939, most of Emily’s children had homes and families of their own but Ethel was still living at 98 East Street with her mother and Edith was nearby at number 93A – with her husband Reginald and young daughter, Brenda.
It is Brenda’s account of the events of December 16th that follows:
“The day my grandmother was killed by a German bomb is etched clearly on my mind.
Gran’s name was Emily Jane Trevett, a widow, the mother of five girls, and she lived in a cottage at the bottom of East Street, where the long gardens back on to ‘Back Rivers.’
The siren wailed when we were having our dinner.
I can’t remember being frightened when the siren sounded as nothing seemed to happen, except, perhaps, for the distant drone of a plane.
When the ‘ all clear’ sounded we all went upstairs to see if there had been any damage. My mother (Edith) went into our little back bedroom that overlooked the river and fields. These fields were used by a local dairy farmer, a Mr. Allen, who had some animals and a cowshed directly behind our house.
My father and I went into the front bedroom and looked out of the window that faced the Crock Lane turning when, from the back bedroom, I heard my mother say
“The top of Allen’s cowshed is gone”
Then a scream, as she turned to look towards the town.
“Oh Mother!”
The smoke and dust my mother could see from that window was the remains of what was her mother’s house, now just a pile of rubble.
My Grandmother was killed instantly as were other occupants of the neighbouring houses.
My father* was given compassionate leave to assist the family and joined his unit at a later date, but sadly he too didn’t survive the war and died in Normandy.”
Emily was 68 when she died and is buried in Bridport Cemetery.
*Brenda’s father, Private Reginald Bartlett 14398671 of the Royal Army Ordance Corps was killed on August 14th 1944 – part of the huge Allied force that took part in the Normandy landings.
He is buried in the military Cemetry at Bayeauxiieces of household ware which survived the bombing at
Teresa Grinter – Emily’s great Grandmother has one of the few pieces of Emily’s household possessions. It survived the bombing because her daughter had borrowed it . . .
Teresa;
“As promised I am sending you the photo of the little cream jug which had belonged to my Great Grandmother Emily Jane Trevitt. My mum gave it to me Christmas 2021 and I had no idea it existed before then. The note she put with it says, “This cream jug belonged to my Gran – Emily Jane Trevitt.
She took some cream down to Mum’s and left it there. Mum didn’t get round to taking it back, so here it is.
She said it would look lovely with a few primroses in so I picked some from my garden for the photo.”