June Westrip was born in Chelmsford in 1940 and killed there in May 1943 when her home in Lower Anchor Street was struck by a German bomb. Her parents and a lodger were also killed.

June WESTRIP, Civilian

Fatally injured during an air raid at Lower Anchor Street, Chelmsford. Aged 2

The bomb demolished numbers 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25, while numbers 19, 20 & 26 were damaged beyond repair, and numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 were seriously damaged. Across the road the explosion seriously damaged numbers 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 & 97 which stood opposite the scene of the bomb.  

June and her parents were buried at Chelmsford Borough Cemetery (grave 5419) on 22nd May 1943.

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June was born in Chelmsford in 1940, the daughter of Sidney Arthur Westrip and Cissie Kezia Westrip (nee Goldsmith). June had an elder brother born in 1932.

In 1943 June was living with her parents and a lodger, Gwendoline Iris James, at 22 Lower Anchor Street in Chelmsford. The property was an old terraced house on the road’s northern side between The Orange Tree and The Queen’s Head pubs. In the early hours of 14th May that year Chelmsford experienced what was to prove to be its heaviest air raid of the war. In a sharp attack that lasted

for just over an hour, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, dropped a large number of high explosive, incendiaries and parachute landmines which caused extensive damage to residential, commercial and industrial properties in the town, and led to the deaths of more than 50 people.

Among the dead was June, one of eight people who died as a result of a 250 kg high explosive bomb which scored a direct hit on her home, 22 Lower Anchor Street. One account suggests it hit the air raid shelter in which the householders were sheltering. June's parents and their lodger, Gwendoline Iris James, were also killed in the incident. June was pulled out of the wrecked property with serious injuries and died later that day in Chelmsford & Essex Hospital. Neighbours Henry William Smith and Joan Miriam Smith at number 24, and William Judd and Mary Judd at number 19 also died.