A German Incendiary Bomb

Even now, my flesh still creeps when I think about this.

Me and my brother were frequently packed off by Mother from our home at 88 College Road, Kensal Rise, to the South Kensington Museums on a No 52 bus.
(Does anybody recall the Imperial Institute’s display of dioramas and woods from the Empire hung on the walls of a great hall; and the continuous free films — elephants hauling timber etc; and the postage stamps in glass frames by the upstairs restaurant? Where are these things now?).

After one visit we went into Kew Gardens or Hyde Park where brother Brian (1931 - ) found an incendiary bomb. True it had no tail fin but you couldn’t have everything. What a prize!
He hid it under his jacket and brought it home.
Now the really alarming thing about this story is that Dad, George Alexander Merryweather (1903 — 1991) was an ARP Warden and he saw us outside the kitchen door after we’d screwed off the cap and were prising out the detonator with his long thin screwdriver.
The black powder in the bottom was tipped out and screwed up in newspaper and placed on an enamel; saucer. A lighted match sent it up with a whoosh which scared our chickens. The saucer melted.

Even more stupid was that at our
V E Night’s bonfire party, in the hope that it would provide a spectacular display, the bomb was thrown into our fire contained in an old ‘copper’ boiler. It exploded.
Fortunately, apart from some scorching to my back, no injuries were sustained. The copper was rent apart and the celebrations halted.

To this day I still cannot understand my Father’s lack of action. An intelligent and otherwise dutiful husband and father.

Where is the bomb now? Probably buried in the garden.

Alan Merryweather (1934 - )

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