I was sorry to read that my cousin Arthur Bishop has passed away, as I had not seen him for many years . I now live near Skegness in Lincolnshire. My favourite and most vivid memories of him are seeing him in his white policeman's helmet on traffic duty in front of St Peter's Church, and also directing traffic by the Aquarium probably in the middle 1950s.

Henry Stunell, my grandfather's cousin, witnessed this incident and was motivated to join the RAF. He is the same man that survived an incident involving the Lancaster he was in. Of the Lancaster's 7 man crew, only 2 survived. He appears in two books: 'To Hell and Back' by Mel Rolfe, and a book by the other survivor Ron Needle called 'Saved by the Bell'.

This site is really great, it really helped me with my history homework.

My wife Wendy lived at 13 Princes Terrace, Kemp Town. On the 15th July 1940 her home was bombed at 6am by a plane flying from east to west. The house was badly damaged and her grandmother, Ettie Hargreaves, was killed.  It is possible that this was one of the first actions by the enemy over the mainland. Wendy was 11 years old and went to school that very morning at Brighton and Hove High School for Girls, and they were fortunately able to find accomodation in Hove. This attack received very little publicity. Several other people were killed that morning. Their father, Roland Hargreaves, worked in the Westminster Bank in Castle Square. Wendy and I now live at Rustington and celebrated our 61st wedding anniversary in April having been married at St Wulfrans, Ovingdean. [Editor: Congratulations on your 61 years together!]

I refer to John Glover's comment above. I, being the brother of Wendy, was also asleep in 13 Princes Terrace that July morning in 1940, and count myself extremely lucky to be in a position to make this contribution to the incident. I can confirm that my dearly loved grandmother, Ettie, who was killed in the attack, is documented in David Rowland's book "The Brighton Blitz", as being "the first Brighton person to be killed by a bomb". Three other people were killed that day by this enemy action. I, like my father, went on to pursue a banking career. Mine however was in the Far East and I am now retired and living in the United States of America with my wife Margery.

The only person not mentioned in the Hargreaves story is their lovely mother who, clutching her two children round her, said those immortal words: "See if you can find the cat".

Regards the various comments about dear Ettie Hargreaves I would ask the following to please contact me: John Glover, Jeremy Hargreaves, Ken McNeil Jnr.and Trevor Duplock.  You all may be able to help me with wartime research.  Thank you. david.h.rowland@btinternet.com

Does anyone have any information on George Debonnaire who was killed in the Kemp Town bombing, but I cannot find him in the records?

I have only recently been referred to this site by a friend who recognised my brother Ruebens name when he read the piece by Ken McNeill. I was talking to my brother about the war years a few weeks ago and he recounted the story of the Kemp Town Bombing to me. He had in fact gone to the cinema with Arthur Bishop and my mother Esther (Kit). After the bombing, Rueben and Arthur were frantically searching amongst the debris for my mum only to discover that she had calmly walked to the hospital with a piece of shrapnel embedded in her head having entered through her temple. I worked with Arthur Bishop for many years in Brighton Police without knowing this story. Unfortunately my mother passed on many years ago, but Rueben is still going strong and lives in Peacehaven

My grandma was in the cinema too and she lost her best friend. Very interesting to hear her story but at the same time very scary; we are all very lucky to live in peace in the UK.

I am now 70 years old and all these years I thought my foster sister Monica Duplock was holding me in that theatre. If what you say is correct, then I guess I was not there and have been suffering for the wrong reason. Thanks for clearing this up for me, your Uncle Peter.

This is the first picture I have seen of Monica Duplock. She was my mother's cousin. Trevor you could fill in some family history if you would like to contact me on rags4@bigpond.com.au

I have just seen David G Osborne's post. My mother, Joyce Marchant (nee Laws), was in the Odeon bombing with her sister Winifred. Mum's best friend died, but I'm not sure of her name. Mum's family also lived in Hervey Road.

Hello Trevor, thank you for your item about Monica. Neil was my father who unfortunatly died in februrary 1996 aged 60. He very rarely spoke about the tragic events of that day, but carried a triangular scar below his left eye from shrapnel that hit him. I think he blamed himself for the loss of Monica as he pestered Nan Duplock for Monica to take him to the Odeon. He told me that he was sitting at the back of the cinema with his mates when the bomb hit the building & Monica was down the front with her friends. Basically he came to in the Sussex County but unfortunately Monica didn't survive. I am a resident in Whitehawk & live very near the old family address of Whitehawk Avenue. I found this site by the off chance & thank you for your input. Best wishes. Martin Broughton.

I now live in Cavendish Court on the actual site where the Odeon Cinema stood. We have a photo of the old cinema in our residents lounge.

I once worked with a girl who had been in that cinema when it was bombed. She told me she had gone with her cousin that day and they sat side by side. Suddenly the bomb came down and so did a lot of the building. Her cousin was killed and she sat there buried knowing her cousin was dead beside her. She had to be dug out and she said it seemed ages that she had to wait. She seemed not to have been badly injured – except that she was full of shrapnel. Every now and then it came to the surface and had to be removed. I wish I could remember her name.

My Mum lived in Mile Street. The Amex is there in its place now. She says that this street was badly hit during the war and most of the houses were bombed, and that a lot of people died including a baby that was blown up onto a chimney and two elderly ladies. Mum recalls a woman's hand being found- she was wearing a wedding ring, very sad. My family name was Booker.

My name is Henry Wood and my parents lived at 55 Whitehawk Avenue, 3 doors away from Monica Diplock who was killed at the cinema. Both families were very friendly with Sid Diplock who was always in our house with my brothers, Doug and Harold. On the morning of the bombing another neighbour, Olive Beal, asked were we going to the pictures that afternoon? I said no as we were playing football on the local pitches. When the bomb dropped we all ran home not knowing where the bomb had dropped. When the No 3 bus came up the road we were told the cinema had been hit. All the parents of the cinema goers went to the Odeon and the hospital to find all the children. Olive Beal came home and said Monica had been taken to the hospital, the last she saw of her. Mr Diplock came home and said Monica had died. Such a shock - we all lost a good playmate.

Hello Henry. I am related to the Beal family, my mother had 9 brothers and Olive was probably a sister-in-law. There was talk in the family of my nan, Alice Beal, being in the cinema and helping some people. I will ask a cousin of mine to verify this.

Hi Trevor, how's Barry. I recognised Monica`s photo (Dol Dol) on my daughter's computer. I stayed with your nan for three years- your nan was my mother's sister. It was very sad. My Auntie Gert never got over losing her daughter Monica.

I lived in Walpole Road during the war and the Odeon Kemp Town was my local picture house. We boys always referred to it as the "Titchy" Odeon to distinguish it from the "Big" Odeon in West Street. I used to walk from Walpole Road to the Odeon Kemp Town. The whole town was "blacked out" and one had to use a torch (shining downwards) to see where one was going. There were no lights showing from the Odeon and one had to open the outer door, then close it before opening the inner door. During the performance a notice came up on the screen if an air raid siren had sounded. Then when the "pips" went another notice appeared on the screen saying "enemy raiders imminent". As I remark in my comment on the Odeon, the audience did not leave the cinema. It was far more dangerous outside with hot, jagged pieces of anti aircraft shells falling out of the sky.