A poignant ceremony in which a plaque was unveiled commemorating the deaths of 24 people in bombings in the Second World War took place in a back street in Chatham yesterday.

Relatives and survivors of the tragedy gathered in Ordnance Street to remember the horror in 1940 when two wartime blasts descended on their homes.

The man behind the campaign for the plaque at the very spot where the second bomb dropped in December of that year was Steve Foy.

Mr Foy was 10 and at a friend’s house about to have tea when the air raid siren sounded around Chatham.

Mr Foy, 84,from Walderslade said: “I always remember my mum saying when the siren went off wherever I was to run home. So I grabbed my coat and that’s what I did.”

His friend James Thorn and the rest of the Thorn family were killed when parachute bombs descended on their home.

It is the 74th anniversary of the bombing and Mr Foy has been pressing for the plaque with the names of those who died for years.

His cause was taken up by Medway Labour group leader Cllr Vince Maple.

Cllr Maple said: “For most people the history of the war is placed in a dusty corner in a museum, But for me and Mr Foy it is not about being in a museum or text book, but about being in the community.”

Mr Foy, whose family including grandchildren, attended the unveiling said: “The old saying goes no man is an island and you have proved that e here today by all turning up.

“I am gobsmacked. You have made my day.”

• Full story in Friday’s Medway Messenger