#Monument
Royal Engineers Memorial
The stone and plaque is a memorial to a group of Royal Engineers from the 9th Disposal Company who transported Unexploded Bombs (UXB) to the nearby common for safe destruction.
The common was used by the Royal Engineers to transport dangerous UXB’s to a safe location. The disposal teams worked to deactivate fuses and then placed explosives onto the bombs to destroy them. UXB’s were generally made safe in situ but in some cases they could not be and needed to be transported with great care.
On 17 October 1940, Second Lieutenant Alexander ‘Sandy’ Campbell and his team transported a UXB to the common and safely destroyed the 250lb bomb. The following day the same procedure was carried out for a similar UXB. Upon arrival at the common and during the unloading process, the bomb detonated and killed Sandy and six other men.
The plaque commemorates 2nd Lt Alexander Campbell, Sergeant Michael Gibson, Sappers Willian Gibson, Richard Gilchrest, Jack Plumb, Ronald Skelton and Driver Taylor.
The seven men are buried in a collective grave at London Road Cemetery, Coventry.
The memorial was placed close to the common on 18 October 2008, the 68th anniversary of the men’s death.