PC Alfred Smith

Alfred Smith born in Wokingham near Reading in 1880 , he moved to London in 1902 and joined the Metropolitan Police on 10th October that same year, his admission papers describe him as 5 ft 11inches in height and 13st 2Ibs in weight with auburn hair, blue eyes  and a fair complexion. PC Smith was assigned to G Division and covered the Finsbury area (known today as the old borough of Finsbury Islington) along with other constables initially living at the police station at that time. 

Around mid-morning on Wednesday June 13th 1917, PC Smith was on duty close to a clothing factory which manufactured clothes for the Debenhams Department Store close to Central Street,Finsbury, high over London, fourteen German Gotha planes began unleashing their deadly cargoes of bombs onto the streets below. 

A mixture of panic and curiosity appears to have gripped the citizens of the Metropolis as the bombs began to explode around them.

PC Smith heard the German Gotha G.V aircraft approaching and warned panicking factory workers in Central Street, Finsbury, to stay inside. The factory consisted of 150 Women and girls who were machinists and supervised by three men. Two of these men ran out in the street to see what was happening after hearing the first bombs. One of the men was killed and the other one badly injured. With little experience of daytime air raids and petrified by the explosions the women and girls from the factory started to in panic leave the building and run down the street.

The remaining supervisor was trying to gather the factory workers together, to bring them back inside but in all the chaos was struggling to do so.

PC Smith heard the German Gotha G.V aircraft approaching and warned panicking factory workers in Central Street, Finsbury, to stay inside. He eventually got them back in inside and assisted the supervisor. He then stood on the porch at the factory doors to prevent them returning back out into the street.

In doing his duty he sacrificed his own life. He died when a bomb exploded a few feet away from him. The 37-year-old had a wife and a three-year-old son.

The raid on June 13th  killed a total of 162 people.

There is a memorial in Postman’s park London EC1, remembering the heroic self sacrifice that was made by PC Smith.

In 2017 an Islington People’s plaque was erected to mark 100 years of PC Smiths death and bravery at 43-45 Central street Islington. “The plaque is well deserved and marks an extreme act of bravery,” said Robert Jeffries, 63, PC Smith’s great-nephew and a retired police officer.

“He did what’s in the news now, policemen running towards danger, and he wouldn’t have had time to know what hit him.”

Memorial in Postman’s Park

Islington Peoples Plaque