Barretts of Canterbury: 28-30 St. Peter's Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2BL

GRB died at his home, Westgate Court, on the 12th October 1943. It was obviously the end of an era, and he was much mourned with over 150 people attending his funeral.

On January 22 1944 the Luftwaffe ensured that nothing could be the same again. On this day the Germans launched their Steinbock campaign which was to be their last mass bombing campaign of the war. However such was the poor state of their aircrews, and the strength of the home defences, that only 30 of 500 tonnes of bombs reached their London target. At least two bombers found Canterbury instead, one of these strays was shot down and crashed in Lower Chantry (now the Safeway, St Georges site) and another dropped its load of 2.2kg incendiaries along the London Road, St Dunstans and beyond the West Station.

Just one found its way to Barretts; at about 5.10 am it fell through the roof into a locked caravan that was in storage. The firewatchers tried to put it out, but in vain, so they called the National Fire Service who were already busy in London Road. Unfortunately by the time they could get their hoses on the blaze at 5.40 it was too late. The buildings were completely destroyed and the new store was gutted. Barretts were back at square one. The photo shows the site after it was cleared, it was completely flattened, all that remained was the front half of the "new" building that had been erected in 1938.