Staveley Road's V2 Memorial

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Information panel installed by Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society

In September 2004 a memorial was unveiled by the Mayor of Hounslow in Staveley Road, Chiswick, to commemorate those who died when the first V2 fell 60 years before. This event was organised jointly by the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society and the Battlefields Trust.

Now a new information panel (see image below) has been placed on the fence beside the memorial, describing the V2 blast and commemorating those who died in 1944. The commemorative event, the information panel and albums of information about the Chiswick V2 have been paid for by Home Front Recall, a special grant scheme which was operated by the Big Lottery Fund.

The V2 landed in the centre of Staveley Road, towards the junction with Burlington Lane. The memorial has been be placed close to this spot, where today there is a small electricity sub-station. Three people died and 22 were injured, 11 houses were demolished and 27 more were seriously damaged in the immediate area.

The V2 was launched from Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague in the Netherlands. On the same evening as the Chiswick ceremony, the local authority and community of Wassenaar marked the event with their own memorial at the launch site.

Since the unveiling, many eyewitnesses (or more properly “ear-witnesses”) have come forward and told their stories to the Local History Society. These have been assembled in an album, together with material about the events of 1944, details of the 2004 commemorations in Chiswick and Wassenaar and information about the planting of a cherry tree at Peenemünde where the V1 and V2 weapons were developed. A copy of the album was presented to the Museum in Peenemünde and another is now in the Local Studies Collection at Chiswick Library

A grant from Home Front Recall, the lottery grant scheme which supported the commemoration of World War 2 events, provided the funds for the commemoration event, the information panel and other educational materials.