Annual Commemoration of V2 Rocket Attack to Be Held
Ceremony will mark exact time of impact on Staveley Road
Wreath laid at the site last year on the 80th anniversary of the attack. Picture: Howard Simmons
August 19, 2024
Each year on 8 September, residents and local historians gather on Staveley Road in Chiswick to mark the anniversary of a devastating moment in British wartime history—the impact of the first V2 rocket to strike the United Kingdom during World War II.
The brief wreath-laying ceremony takes place at the black granite memorial near the site of the blast, close to the junction with Burlington Lane. Attendees will begin to assemble this Monday (8 September) at around 6:30pm, and at 6:44pm, the exact time the rocket struck in 1944, a wreath is laid to honour all those who lost their lives to V2 weapons during the war.
The rocket, launched from Wassenaar in the Netherlands, landed on Staveley Road without warning—travelling faster than the speed of sound. The explosion killed three people: three-year-old Rosemary Clarke, 68-year-old Ada Harrison, and Private Bernard Browning, who was home on leave.
Bernard Browning was walking past on the way to Chiswick Station to go and visit his girlfriend. Rosemary Clarke, died while asleep in the front bedroom at no 1 Staveley Road and Ada Harrison lived at number three. Hher husband was badly injured and died soon afterwards. The Harrisons ran a sweet shop and newsagent called Bonanza on the corner of Park Road and Burlington Lane where the Co-op now is.
Over 20 others were injured, and dozens of homes were destroyed or severely damaged.
The people who died in the V2 attack. Picture: Chiswick Local Studies & Archives
Initially, authorities attributed the blast to a gas leak to avoid revealing the presence of Germany’s new weapon. But the truth soon emerged, and the event marked the beginning of a new and terrifying phase of the war.
Since the memorial was installed in 2004, the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society has organised the annual ceremony, ensuring the memory of those affected is preserved. The site, now a quiet residential street, still bears subtle scars of the past—a small electricity substation marks the approximate impact point.
The ceremony not only commemorates the victims of the Chiswick blast but also serves as a tribute to all those who suffered under the V2 campaign across Europe.
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