At a glance
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Plaque commissioned by Louis Baer.
Wartime censorship almost meant that the bombing would be forgotten. Until the late 1990s, not a single memorial marked the spot of the July 3, 1944, bombing. In 1991, the Chelsea Society installed a memorial to those from Chelsea who died in the war, but no mention was made of the American servicemen who died on Sloane Court East.
- In 1997, Louis Baer of California, who had missed the Sloane Court bombing having decided to stop for tea on his way back to his billet, paid for a plaque that was installed by the Kensington and Chelsea Council (1). The death toll listed on the plaque is likely incorrect.
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Plaque installed by Bill Figg.
In 1998, Bill Figg of Chelsea, who had witnessed the aftermath of the 1944 bombing, paid for and had installed the plaque pictured above at right. The plaque sits on a wall on Turks Row, directly across the street from Sloane Court East. The plaque was unveiled on Oct. 4, 1998, at a ceremony that was not attended by American embassy representatives in light of the installation of the first plaque a year earlier (2)(3).
Sources
- (1) “GIs remembered,” The Royal Borough Newsletter, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Winter 1997, p.12.
- (2) Allan Gill, “One man’s fight to honour dead GIs,” The London Evening Standard, 1 October 1998, p.16.
- (3) “At last we remembered them: One man’s mission is fulfilled in Chelsea,” The Chelsea Society Report, 1998, p.32-4.