Hammersmith Bridge - Notable Incidents

Notable Incidents

Near midnight on 27 December 1919, Lieutenant Charles Campbell Wood, a South African serving as an airman in the Royal Air Force, dived from the upstream footway of the bridge into the Thames to rescue a drowning woman. Although Wood saved her life, he later died from tetanus as a consequence of his injuries. His act of bravery is commemorated by a plaque on the handrail.

At 4:30 am on 1 June 2000 the bridge was damaged by a Real IRA bomb planted underneath the Barnes span. The blast came four years after an attempted bombing by the Provisional IRA (with the largest Semtex bomb ever found in mainland Britain) but following two years of closure for repairs the bridge was reopened with further weight restrictions in place.

The IRA's first attempt to destroy Hammersmith Bridge was on Wednesday 29 March 1939 . Maurice Childs, a women's hairdresser from nearby Chiswick, was walking home across the bridge at one o'clock in the morning when he noticed smoke and sparks coming from a suitcase that was lying on the walkway. He opened it to find a bomb and quickly threw the bag into the river. The resulting explosion sent up a 60-foot (18 m) column of water. Moments later, a second device exploded causing some girders on the west side of the bridge to collapse and windows in nearby houses to shatter. Childs was later awarded an MBE for his quick-thinking. Eddie Connell and William Browne were subsequently jailed for 20 and 10 years respectively for their involvement in the attack.