How Britain’s worst wartime civilian disaster hit the women of Bethnal Green is revealed as part of International Women’s Week being staged by Tower Hamlets Council.
The toll of the Bethnal Green public shelter tragedy in 1943 included 84 women and 36 girls out of the 173 people crushed to death trying to reach safety during an air-raid alert in the Second World War.
Woman played a leading role running services and keeping London safe during the war years, while most men were away in the Armed Forces.
They included Joan Martin, the young doctor on duty at the Children's Hospital in Hackney Road on the night of the tragedy where the injured were treated and some of the bodies of the dead were taken.
Joan returned each year for the March 3 anniversary remembrance, even at the age of 102 when she unveiled the memorial in Bethnal Green Gardens in 2018, just weeks before she died.
One of the rescuers on the night of the tragedy was air raid warden Maud Chumdley who managed to pull several children clear of the crush and saved their lives, including 13-year-old Alf Morris, now aged 90, who regularly visits her grave.
An exhibition of the 1943 tragedy runs March 2 to April 4 at Tower Hamlets Archive Library in Mile End as part of Women's Month and is being curated by the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust.
It is one of many Tower Hamlets events focussing on women's contributions to society.
"These events show social and cultural achievements of women in the East End," Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs said. "They remind us about our responsibility as a community to foster equality for all."
Other events include author Joyce Hampton at the library in Bancroft Road exploring the impact of two world wars on Bethnal Green and how social changes affected women, on March 12 at 6pm, booking required.
Elsewhere, an exhibition of photographs recording the lives of women in the East End taken by women photographers from the 1970s to the present day is being held at Whitechapel's Brady arts centre in Hanbury Street from March 2 to 28.
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