Died December 16th 1942 Age 80
Elizabeth was one of the three victims of the December 16th bombing in Bridport.
She lived at 94-96 East Street, and it was her home and that of her neighbour, Emily Trevett that were destroyed by a German bomber.
The 1939 Register shows that eight people were registered at those houses. It was a Wednesday, and some of the occupants would have been at work or at school when the plane flew along the length of West and East Street around 12.30pm
Elizabeth, nee Hockey, married Albert Norman in September 1883, and they moved into their married home at 94 East Street. Albert worked as a twine spinner while Emily was at home raising four children – William, Miriam, Sidney and Leslie.
As the children grew older, Albert changed jobs and at the time of the 1911 he was listed as a grocer – employing other staff, including Elizabeth, who was ‘assisting in the business’ and daughter Miriam.
Sidney was a mechanical engineer, and the two younger boys were still at school. Elizabeth had the help of Eliza Symes working as a domestic servant in the family home.
Sadly, Elizabeth’s husband, Albert, died in 1921 and circumstances changed for the recently widowed Elizabeth.
She remained at 94-96 East Street, but when all the children had moved away it appears that she took in lodgers to help with her finances. The 1939 Register records a Mary Woodward, (bank clerk) and a Mrs King and her daughter Marion and son Peter living with her.
Florence Pomeroy lived in Portland Place, King Street – a row of three cottages tucked away behind East Street and this is her account of what happened to her, and Elizabeth and her neighbours on December 16th.
“Frank (her husband) was going to hang his coat up, when all of a sudden Wham! down came the bomb . . . We didn’t hear the siren and I don’t think I heard the bomb. . .
I don’t know whether the door hit me or what . . .
Well outside there was just rubble. I could hear someone screaming next door to me and they couldn’t get out because one was blind, and they were both fairly old people . . . Soldiers came and helped us out. It was a mass of debris.”
While some of her neighbours were injured, Elizabeth did not survive the attack.
She is buried in Bridport Cemetery.
