Mrs Winifred Bloomfield

On 18 October 2015 The Odiham Society commemorated the five civilians who lost their lives as a result of the bombs which fell at the junction of High Street and Church Street 75 years ago, with a blue plaque and an exhibition in the Cross Barn. 

Winifred was born near the Malvern Hills in 1889.  She was the daughter of James and Susannah Athfield.  In the 1891 census she was enumerated with her mother and younger brother, Francis, at Bath Cottage, Mathon, West Malvern.  (*1891 census, Mathon, ref; RG12; Piece: 2052; Folio: 78; page: 18)

By 1901 Winifred was working in London as she appeared on the electoral roll for Brompton Ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Kensington.  (Ref. England and Wales Electoral Registers Collection 1832 – 1932, findmypast.co.uk )  In 1915 she returned home for her marriage to John William Bloomfield, who had been born in Reading in 1874.  (1891 Census, Reading, Berkshire, ref: Class: RG11; Piece: 1309; Folio: 67; Page: 10; GSU roll: 1341318, Ancestry.co.uk).  In 1939 the couple were living at The Swan, Hartley Wintney, when John was taken ill and admitted to the Hospital, Winchfield, where he died on 2 March that year.Probate was granted to Winifred, his effects amounting to £209.18.6[i]. (Source: National Probate Calendar Wills 1885 – 1966, ancestry.co.uk).

The 1939 Household Register for Odiham shows that Winifred moved from Hartley Wintney to Heath Cottage, Church Street, Odiham. She is recorded as living in the household of Percy Hiscock with the personal occupation of ‘Unpaid domestic duties’, an ‘occupation’, which seems to be the norm for women at home at the time.  It was here in Church Street that Winifred became a victim of the bombing on 18 October 1940.