Reginald Charles English was born on 9 May 1931, the youngest of the five children of George William English (1894-1966) and Annie Victoria English née Roberts (1899-1940). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1931 in the Stepney Registration District, London.
His four siblings were: Leslie George English (b.1920); Ernest John William English (1922-1990); Kenneth Stanley English (1925-2002) and Joyce A. English (1929-2016).
Electoral registers from 1933 to 1936 show his parents listed at 79 Goldsmith Row, Bethnal Green, London and from 1937 to 1939 at 17 Mansford Street, Bethnal Green.
The England and Wales Register that was compiled on 28 September 1939 confirmed his date of birth as 9 May 1931 and listed him as at school. He was living at 17 Mansford Street, Bethnal Green, with his parents and two of his brothers: Ernest John William English - a bedding and taping machinist and Kenneth Stanley English - a bedding mattress filler. His father was described as a porter employed by the General Post Office, whilst his mother was shown as on unpaid domestic duties.
He was injured on the night of 7th/8th September 1940 in the Columbia Market Air Raid Shelter, Bethnal Green, which took a direct hit from a bomb and died on 9 September 1940 at Bethnal Green Hospital, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9NP. His in City of London Cemetery and Crematorium, Aldersbrook Road, London, E12 5DQ.
He is shown as "ENGLISH REGINALD 9" on the Columbia Market air raid shelter memorial in the Rose Garden, Old Market Square, Ravenscroft Park, London, E2. He is also commemorated on the , which gives his family address as 21 Scawfell Street, Shoreditch, London, on the and in that is kept just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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