Person    | Male  Born 24/5/1915  Died 18/9/1940

Ernest John Purdy

Categories: Emergency Services

War dead non-military, WW2 i

Commemorated on a memorial as being a civilian who was killed in WW2. Includes mercantile marines and emergency services personnel.

Ernest John Purdy

Member of the ARP/Civil Defence Services - stretcher bearer.

Andrew Behan has kindly provided this research: Ernest John Purdy was born on 24 May 1913 in Poplar, a twin with his sister, May Florence Purdy (1913-1984). He was the son of Joseph Linn Purdy (1881-1942) and Caroline Purdy (1873-1931). 

His mother was born Caroline Yearrington and had married a William George Bailey who died in 1902. They had two children Lilian Caroline Bailey (1897-1964) and Maud Bailey (1900-1989) who were his half-sisters. When his widowed mother remarried his parents had five other children, William Joseph Purdy (1905-1967), Joseph Stanley Purdy (1907-1991), Grace Maud Purdy (1908-1932), Bertrand Edward Purdy (1911-1997) and Winifred E. Purdy (1916-1916). His father was a bricklayer. 

He was baptised on 11 June 1913 at St Andrew's Church, Bromley-by-Bow and the family were living at 31 Gurley Street, Bromley-by-Bow. Electoral registers show the family still at this address until 1938, but the 1939 England and Wales Register confirms that he and his father were now living at 146 Coventry Cross House, Brunswick Road, Poplar, (Brunswick Road has since been demolished and now is the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach - A12), and that his occupation was a hospital porter. He was also an A.R.P. Stretcher Bearer and died, aged 27 years, on 18 September 1940 when a high explosive bomb fell on Saunders Ness Road School, Isle of Dogs, London, E.14, that was being used as Auxiliary Fire Service Sub Station No.35U. He is also commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour, located near St. George's Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ernest John Purdy

Commemorated ati

Cubitt Town School air raid

{Beneath the AFS symbol:} In memory of auxiliary firewomen Joan Fanny Bartlet...

Read More

Other Subjects

Fm. Terence Breen

Fm. Terence Breen

Fireman killed in the Dudgeon's Wharf explosion. Andrew Behan has researched Breen: Fireman Terence Joseph Patrick Breen was born on 19 May 1932 and his birth was registered in Stepney. He was a s...

Person, Emergency Services, Tragedy

2 memorials
Charles Albert Goodwyn

Charles Albert Goodwyn

Charles Albert Goodwyn was born on 26 February 1906 in Southwark, one of the nine children of Frederick William Goodwyn (b.1870) and Elizabeth Goodwyn née Harris (1870-1945). In the 1911 census he...

Person, Emergency Services

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Fireman George Richard Norris
War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Henry Frankland

Henry Frankland

One of five fire-watchers killed on the night bombs fell on Chelsea Old Church and the surrounding area. Carpenter employed by the Westminster Carriage Company, 48 Old Church Street. Not an offici...

Person, Emergency Services

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Sidney Lewis

Sidney Lewis

Soldier. He enlisted in the East Surrey Regiment in August 1915 at the age of twelve, and fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, then aged thirteen. In the 106th Machine Gun Company of the Mach...

Person, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, Austria, France

1 memorial