Kingston Informer 8/7/1994 (page 5) reported the unveiling: 'Bomb dead honoured 50 years on. THE VEIL of official secrecy has been lifted on a World War Two tragedy in which 40 [sic] soldiers were killed when a German V1 flying bomb landed on the Metropolitan Police sports ground in East Molesey. Survivors attended a commemoration at the Imber Court ground last Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the carnage. The dead, all Welsh Guardsman camped at Kempton Park racecourse, had been invited by the Met to a sports day. Another 140 people were injured. There is no record of any police officers or civilians being killed. The Government hushed up wartime incidents such as this to avoid undermining public morale. It was a chance remark by an elderly woman in 1992 that revealed the enormity of the flying bomb incident. The commemoration followed two years' painstaking research by Inspector Ray Ward, of the Mounted Police Section at Imber Court. and PC Nick Forrester, curator of the museum there. They managed to trace survivors, now in their 70s, in a bid to discover the full story of June 30. 1944. Inspector Ward said this week: "Eventually we pierced together what happened. We wanted the exact story. "When anything like this happened during the war it was hushed up. There are no records that we could find. "An old lady started talking about the flying bomb that dropped and it started from there" he added. Doctor George Tickler, who tended the injured at Thames Ditton Hospital met Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Moss and other survivors at the unveiling of a commemorative plaque last Thursday. Dr Tickler, now 88, of Western Green Road, Thames Ditton, who was accompanied by his wife Leigh, said: "It was a moving occasion." He told how he and his wife saw the flying bomb as they drove near their home on the way from Horton Hospital, Epsom, where he had been looking after the D-Day wounded. As the Vl's engine cut out they scrambled from the car and lay in a ditch. They felt the explosion. Then he drove to Thames Ditton Hospital where a large number of casualties had been brought in. He said: "It was a day I'll never forget. There were all sorts of nasty wounds but everyone remained calm. "It emphasized the horrors of war. Why can't disputes between countries be settled by discussion." A spokeswoman at the Imperial War Museum, London. said this week: "It was considered to be bad for morale if too much detail was divulged about flying bombs". A plaque was unveiled by Chief Superintendent Laurie Doust, president of the Metropolitan Police Sports Club'. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002505/19940708/022/0005

The Imber Court Sports Club website has information re the memorial, and the event which led to its creation, see https://www.imbercourt.com/membership/history-of-imber-court/doodlebug-alley/

Unveiling Programme/ Order of Service 2000

Welsh Guards Regimental Magazine 2020 (page 208); printed an article, entitled 'The Tragedy at Imber Court, Surrey', describing the VI Flying Bomb incident on 30th June 1944, including the recollections of Dick Fletcher, who witnessed it.

The War Memorials Trust's record of this memorial can be found at https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/201936/