ARNOLD Peggy Louise May

Peggy Arnold was born on the 7th December 1919, the daughter of George Minter Arnold and Dorothy M. Sauders who married in the Lambeth registration district during the September quarter. Peggy’s brother, George, was born in 1922. Sadly, one year later in October 1923, their father died leaving Dorothy with two very young children to raise alone. At the time of his death the family were residing in Walthamstow.

In 1939 Peggy was employed as a telephonist and was living with her widowed mother at 67 Canning Road, Islington. In 1942 Dorothy married Albert Tongue in Islington. By 1944 Peggy was working as a nurse at Westminster Hospital, residing at the Queen Mary Nurses’ Home in Page Street.

On the 18th June 1944 at 11.20am, the engines on a V1 rocket cut out and the bomb scored a direct hit on the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk. The blast demolished most of the building with the falling rubble killing 121 soldiers and civilians, including Peggy, and seriously injuring 141 others. Those killed included the officiating Chaplain, the Reverend Ralph Whitrow as well as several senior military personnel.

Peggy was interred alongside her father in Walthamstow Cemetery in grave 1286D on the 24th June 1944. She was 24 years of age.

More detailed information on the bombing and its aftermath can be found via this link:
http://www.westendatwar.org.uk/page_id__151_path__0p2p.aspx
Link still valid 22nd September 2023.

A list of casualties and details of the attack can be found in the book ‘Send More Shrouds: The V1 Attack on the Guards’ Chapel 1944’.

The following information is courtesy of Jan Gore:
Peggy Arnold was working as hospital nurse at Westminster hospital and living at Queen Mary Nurses Home, Page St, Westminster.
Nurses often attended morning service at the Guards’ Chapel – places were kept for them and she was living not far away. A V1 hit the Chapel during morning service, killing 124 people. Sadly, Peggy was one of them.