Sister, Evelyn Mary PALMER
Aged 28
Civilian War Dead
Died in a bombing raid on Sunday, 8th December 1940
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Evelyn was born on 13th September 1911, daughter of Reginald and Muriel PALMER of Ecclestone House, Mildenhall. Family details at present very sketchy, she does not appear to have been born in Mildenhall or even nearby. It appears that she was the sister of Eric Arthur Palmer, who died on HMS Holcombe in 1943, in which case her mother was Muriel Kolbe PALMER (née CARNEGIE) and may well have been born in South Africa. Reginald and Muriel and Eric ( there was at least one sister, Mary Carnegie PALMER) were in the area in the early 1930s as Eric was at Soham Grammar school. Reginald and Muriel were at Stone's Stores for the 1939 register. In the 1939 register she was a deaconess at St George's, Hackney, living alone at 6 Groombridge Road, Hackney. She died in a bombing raid on London, at 61 Cawley Road, Hackney. This was the Manse for the London East Mission, occupied by the Reverend William GILBERT. As the rooms at the mission were considered unsuitable due to the bombing, he had living there, Sister Evelyn PALMER, Sister Evelyn HARRISON and her sister Edith HARRISON and the matron of the Mission, Maud ALEXANDER. Despite the usual war time precautions, the Reverend Gilbert insisted on sleeping upstairs, whilst the ladies slept on the floor in the downstairs sitting room. This naturally led to the death of all of them when the house was bombed. They may well have all been saved had they used the basement of the house. The Bury Free Press of 14th December 1940 reported:- MILDENHALL - DOUBLE BEREAVEMENT - Much sympathy will be extended to Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Palmer, of Ecclestone House, Mildenhall, in the double bereavement which has befallen them this week. Their eldest daughter, Miss Evelyn Palmer, was killed by enemy air action in London on Monday last, and Mrs. Palmer has since received a cable from Rhodesia telling of the death of her mother, Mrs Carnegie, on the same day, at the age of 78. Miss Palmer, who, by her personal charm and character, had endeared herself to all who knew her, had been for some years a Deaconess at the Leysian Mission in London. This was followed on 4th January 1914 by :-
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