HOY05 - Civilian Casualties 1940
James Ramsden Hoyland was born in Netherthong, near Huddersfield, Yorkshire in 1796. He was a hand-loom woollen weaver. On 01 November 1835 he married Anne Hollingworth at Almondbury All Hallows and over the next 20 years they had 10 children.
Their eldest son, Joshua, moved to Hadfield, Derbyshire with his wife Martha (nee Lee), where they had 9 children. Joshua and Martha's daughter, Alice, b. 1867, never married and in the 1939 register is found living with her sister Mary's family at 18 Varley Street, Manchester. Mary was a shopkeeper and married to James Platt, a cotton spinner. On 23 December 1940 tragedy struck the family when Varley Street was hit by bombing during an air raid. The December 1940 blitz was the bloodiest 48 hours in the history of Manchester. 400 German bombers dropped 2,000 incendiary bombs and 400 tons of explosives, targeting industrial areas of Manchester but most bombs fell on homes killing 820 civilians in 2 nights. Sisters Alice Hoyland and Mary Platt were among the casualties, they were both killed along with Mary's 27 year old daughter, Mabel. |
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