IT’S strange how sometimes I can receive a series of completely unconnected enquiries about the same historical subject.

It happened to me recently when three separate items of correspondence arrived in quick succession, all relating to aspects of wartime Southminster.

The first was about someone’s relation who had served as a policeman in the village during 1939-45. The next contained a vivid personal account of an air raid and the third focused on the local contingent of the ARP.

On reflection, I suppose it isn’t entirely surprising, as Southminster was touched heavily by the war and everyone in the community rose to do their bit on the home front. The common denominator with my contacts is about just that – residents doing their bit for civil defence.

I am fortunate enough to have the Eastern Area War Diary in my possession and this includes a shocking summary of all of the incidents within the boundary of the parish.

These included a staggering 173 high-explosive bombs, seven mines, 1,464 incendiary bombs, seven oil bombs, one parachute bomb, eight V1 Rockets, six V2 rockets, two hostile aircraft crashes, two petrol tanks, four Allied aircraft crashes, one 100lb practice smoke bomb and two land mines.

All of that resulted in three fatalities and 64 injured.

That’s 67 too many, of course, but it’s lucky there weren’t more casualties with that amount of activity.

The first incident occurred at 23.00hrs on August 31, 1940, when a bomb exploded on open marshland at Deal Hall.

The last was also on the marshes – a V1 at 4.08hrs on March 27, 1945.

In between those two dates there was also, among other places, considerable damage to North Street and North End (September 25, 1940), Station Road and Queensborough Road (October 8, 1940), Wraywick, Hall Farm and Goldsands Farm (November 17, 1940), Smyatts Farm (March 3, 1943), in a field west of Kings Road (January 28, 1944), Deal Hall Farm (December 18, 1944) and Ratsboro’ Farm (March 4, 1945) – to name just seven events out of a total list of 54.

So much for the statistics, but what evidence is there for the human reaction? In May 1939, four months before the outbreak, an Air Raid Planning Precautions meeting took place in the Memorial Hall.

Even at that early stage, Southminster had a full establishment of wardens, special constables and observer corps. First aid courses had been held and there were two ambulances and two cars stationed at Derek Dukes Farrell’s Ely Works, at 26 High Street.

Not only that, but a rest room was available at the Railway Hotel, courtesy of licensee Oswald P Kingman and his wife, Jessie.

So impressed was the Chief Constable for Essex that he hoped Southminster would “pass on their secret to other parts of the county”.

As the village’s Head Warden, William Stammers, put it: “Many might think there would be no war, but every far-seeing person must realise the fear of hostilities was widespread, and it was no use waiting until war came.”

Despite all of that, there was no room for complacency and Walter Jones, the chairman of the parish council, appealed for further recruits, declaring that “he had never yet known the people of Southminster to lag behind in any good cause”.

That call for more support proved to be vitally important on September 25, 1940, when a landmine exploded on 11-13 North Street, killing Robin Chandler, aged just nine, David Harold Clark (younger still, at five) and Walter Stanley Hillier, 47.

Those names are engrained in the very fabric of the story of the village, but so are the service personnel – including Southminster air raid wardens Thomas Bush, Thomas Brasted, Victor Coker, Harry Dow, Frederick Evans, Reginald Hughes, John Jennings, Claude Lee, William Mason and William Stammers.

They were clearly a very effective and efficient team and were commended for their “excellent work” during an area Civil Defence Casualty Services contest, held at Maldon East Station in 1942.

And just like the classic TV series Dad’s Army, there must have been at least a bit of healthy rivalry between them and the Southminster Home Guard, who, by the way, had a champion tug-of-war team!

One of my three correspondents also sent me a remarkable photograph showing six of those ARP wardens in front of an impressive and very stylish looking American Hudson car (perhaps owned by Derek Dukes Farrell?), complete with stretchers on the roof-rack.

Of those faces from a distant war-time past we can spot (front left) lifelong village resident Reginald Hughes (1900-1985).

You might even recognise the others, but whoever they were, there is no doubt that they did their bit for Southminster.

Along with countless others like them, they were the backbone of the wider county, country and free world, and I am pleased that my contacts prompted me to remember them.