Lives of the First World War

A series of massive explosions occured at the Explosive Loading Company’s factory at Uplees Marshes, Faversham, Kent, on 2 April 1916. Around midday on 2nd April 1916, sparks escaped from an ineffective arrester on a boiler house and set alight empty sacks near Shed 833, containing TNT and ammonium nitrate. The work force tried hard to contain the fire but it took hold of the shed and spread. The manager ordered the workforce to leave and at around 1.20 p.m, the building blew up. That explosion triggered further explosions at the two nearby nitro-glycerine washing plants. The main explosion left a crater some 40 yards across and 20 feet deep, destroyed adjacent buildings and caused fires throughout the factory complex. Further explosions occured and there was an ongoing risk of smaller but equally deadly explosions from the munitions and mines. Factory workers, teams of firemen from the factory and from nearby towns' fire brigades, and army personnel attempted to tackle the fires and rescue the injured, many of whom had suffered terrible burns. This community respectfully remembers the 109 men and boys who died and are buried in Faversham Borough Cemetery or elsewhere - 35 of them have death certificates issued in Faversham as 'Male, Unknown'. It also commemorates the survivors, without whose desperate efforts the death toll would have been much higher, and the courage of the rescuers - the party led by Corporal Harris, the Buffs (East Kent) Regiment, and those from the Royal Engineers, who were awarded the MSM in 1917; the party led by 2nd Lieutenant Stebbings, 2nd/3rd West Lancashire Brigade, R.F.A; Stephen Epps and the other brave firemen who attempted to quell the blaze; the ambulance men; and Faversham's three doctors, their wives, and the nurses and VADs, who tirelessly tended the wounded. This community is work-in-progress, there is more to be added

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