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Cyril Demarne
Taken from the Times Online, February 15, 2007
Fire officer who helped to tackle the London Blitz
February 7, 1905 - January 28, 2007
Cyril Demarne was a sub officer in the West Ham Fire Brigade instructing the Auxiliary Fire Service when war was declared. On the the first day of the London Blitz, September 7, 1940, he recalled a “lovely sunny day. There were about 300 German aircraft. Some flew along the waterfront from North Woolwich to the tidal basin and bombed the big factories. [They] had thousands of people in them and there were horrendous casualties.”
Three miles of the waterfront became a continuous blaze, and Demarne ordered 500 pumps to the scene. The commander thought this exaggerated and sent someone down to see. The man reported back that 1,000 engines were needed.
There followed 57 consecutive nights of air raids, a night off for bad weather, then they resumed until May 10, 1941. On continuous duty, the AFS tackled fires and dug the dead and injured from the rubble.
In October 1941 Demarne was appointed company officer at Whitechapel in the new National Fire Service. In 1944 he went back to West Ham as divisional officer and was later transferred to the City and Central London where he was involved in three of the worst V2 incidents with more than 300 people killed.
Cyril Thomas Demarne was born in Poplar in 1905. He joined the Fire Service in 1925 and after the war had two years service in the West End before being promoted to chief fire officer West Ham. In 1952 he was appointed OBE.
Retiring from the Fire Service in 1955, he moved to Aus-tralia and was senior instructor of the Fire Service Training School at Sydney airport until 1964. He also developed the Norfolk Island and Papua New Guinea aviation fire departments and set up and ran the safety centre at Beirut airport until his retirement in 1967.
He published his memoirs, The Blitz — A Fireman’s Tale (1980) and Our Girls: A Story of the Nation’s Wartime Firewom-en (1995). He contributed to The Blitz Then and Now (1987) book series and appeared in several TV documentaries.
Demarne was married in 1930. His wife died in 1986, and he leaves two daughters.
Cyril Demarne, OBE, fire officer, was born on February 7, 1905. He died on January 28, 2007, aged 101
Fire officer who helped to tackle the London Blitz
February 7, 1905 - January 28, 2007
Cyril Demarne was a sub officer in the West Ham Fire Brigade instructing the Auxiliary Fire Service when war was declared. On the the first day of the London Blitz, September 7, 1940, he recalled a “lovely sunny day. There were about 300 German aircraft. Some flew along the waterfront from North Woolwich to the tidal basin and bombed the big factories. [They] had thousands of people in them and there were horrendous casualties.”
Three miles of the waterfront became a continuous blaze, and Demarne ordered 500 pumps to the scene. The commander thought this exaggerated and sent someone down to see. The man reported back that 1,000 engines were needed.
There followed 57 consecutive nights of air raids, a night off for bad weather, then they resumed until May 10, 1941. On continuous duty, the AFS tackled fires and dug the dead and injured from the rubble.
In October 1941 Demarne was appointed company officer at Whitechapel in the new National Fire Service. In 1944 he went back to West Ham as divisional officer and was later transferred to the City and Central London where he was involved in three of the worst V2 incidents with more than 300 people killed.
Cyril Thomas Demarne was born in Poplar in 1905. He joined the Fire Service in 1925 and after the war had two years service in the West End before being promoted to chief fire officer West Ham. In 1952 he was appointed OBE.
Retiring from the Fire Service in 1955, he moved to Aus-tralia and was senior instructor of the Fire Service Training School at Sydney airport until 1964. He also developed the Norfolk Island and Papua New Guinea aviation fire departments and set up and ran the safety centre at Beirut airport until his retirement in 1967.
He published his memoirs, The Blitz — A Fireman’s Tale (1980) and Our Girls: A Story of the Nation’s Wartime Firewom-en (1995). He contributed to The Blitz Then and Now (1987) book series and appeared in several TV documentaries.
Demarne was married in 1930. His wife died in 1986, and he leaves two daughters.
Cyril Demarne, OBE, fire officer, was born on February 7, 1905. He died on January 28, 2007, aged 101
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