MACTAVISH, MARY JANE Rank: Civilian Date of Death: 01/07/1940 Age: 44 Regiment/Service: Civilian War Dead Reporting Authority WICK, BURGH OF, SCOTLAND Additional Information: of 49 Argyle Square. Daughter of Mary Jane Elizabeth MacKenzie, of the same address, and of Robert MacKenzie; wife of Peter Paxton MacTavish. Died at 4 Bank Row. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3159649/MACTAVISH,%20MARY%20JANE
Details of the air raid on Wick 1 July 1940 The first attack to have any significant effect was at Wick on 1 July. (1940) It caused a particularly dreadful tragedy for such a small town, in what has been described as the first daylight bombing raid on a British town (but only if Orkney is excluded). At 4 p.m. on a fine summer afternoon, a single Heinkel He-111 flew in under the radar and dropped its entire load on the town. At least one of its big 5OO kg bombs fell among a cluster of children playing in the Bank Row area. The school holidays had been extended from 18 June to 1 October because of fears about gathering large numbers of children together, precisely to avoid what happened at Wick. But in the long summer holidays children were bound to congregate, and in Bank Row eight of them were killed while playing together. The three youngest were all aged five. Fifteen people were killed and twenty-two injured. Gas and water mains were damaged and several buildings demolished. In one family the father, son, daughter and daughter-in-law were all killed. Extract from - Luftwaffe over Scotland - L. Taylor
Here's her death entry and a couple of links. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/19/a2032219.shtml http://79.170.44.88/ww2inthehighlands.co.uk/folders/memiors/thebankrowbombing.htm https://www.flickr.com/photos/gordon_shepherd/5916165141/
