The Great Gunpowder Explosion of 1916.

This picture is of the aftermath of the explosion of the Gunpowder Works at Oare, Faversham in occured at 2-20pm on Sunday the 2nd of April, the death toll is not exactly certain but 108 souls are thought to be the number, but there also many injured and maimed, a real disaster for a small rural town, many of the dead were buried in a mass grave at Faversham Cemetary.

I can remember in my late teens courting a girl whose Grandfather a Mr Holmes, was a victim of the blast, he was a Whitstable man, I knew him quite well, but he was permanently mentally scarred by the blast, some would say shellshocked he never worked again after that event.

This will give you an idea of the power of the blast, windows were reported as having been blasted out of their frames as far away as Southend it also shattered two plate glass windows, and was heard as far away as Norwich and Yarmouth.