Bethnal Green Disaster

On this date, 3 March, in 1943, 173 Londoners, most of them women and children, were crushed and asphyxiated in the single deadliest British civilian Second World War disaster.

A middle-aged woman and a child descending into an air-raid  shelter fell over, three steps up from the base and others in the orderly flow of people down the blacked-out staircase from the street fell around her, tangled in an immovable mass which grew, as they struggled, to nearly 300 people. Read more at Wikipedia.

If you may have had relatives in the area at the time here are the surnames of the deceased from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database: AARONS; ASSER; BAILEY; BAKER; BASS; BEAKEN; BEGER; BENDON; BENNETT; BOSWORTH; BOWLING; BOXER; BROOKS; BROOKSTONE; BUTTERFIELD; CHANDLER; CHAPMAN; CLATWORTHY; COLEMAN; COLLETT; COURT; DAY; DONGREY; ELLAM; EMERY; FLETCHER; FORBES; FOWLER; FRENCH; GEARY; GROVER; HALES; HALL; HAMMOND; HARRIS; HAWLEY; HAYMAN; HEWITT; HIGGINSON; HILLIER; HISCOKE; HOYE; HUTCHINSON; INGLE; JOHNS; JOHNSON; JOLLY; JONES; JULIER; KOROBENICK; LAND; LAWSON; LAZARUS; LECHMERE; LEGGETT; LEWIS; LOFTUS; MAGUIRE; MASON; MATHERS; MEAD; MORRIS; MYERS; NEVILLE; NEWMAN; NEWTON; NIXON; PAPWORTH; PATTERSON; PERRYMENT; POOLE; PRICE; PUSEY; QUORN; RAULINAITIS; REDWIN; RELF; REYNOLDS; RIDDELL; RIDGWAY; ROCHE; SCEATS; SEABROOK; SEAR; SHARPE; SHEPHERD; SINNOCK; SMITH; SPEIGHT; SPICER; STEVENS; STRETCH; TARBUCK; TAYLOR; THOMPSON; THORPE; TILBURY; TRAYLING; TRICE; TROTTER; VANN; VANNER; WARRINGTON; WELCH; WHITEHEAD; WILSON; WOOD; WOOLNOUGH; YEWMAN.