Hero air raid warden was first to be awarded George Cross

Bridlington still bears scars from the air raids of World War Two. There are small square repair marks on the pillars of the old bank, on King Street, where the stone was peppered with shrapnel.

Above a bargain shop, on Prince Street, old red bricks flow into brighter, newer ones. It was rebuilt after a bomb hit the former Woolworths. The store and Foley's cafe, next door, collapsed.

There is also a brass plaque, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. Though small, it is dedicated to a man and his team who demonstrated enormous determination and bravery.

Thomas Hopper Alderson led the town's ARP (Air Raid Precautions) team. They risked their lives to tunnel by hand under bombed buildings and rescue people trapped inside.

Alderson was the first person to be awarded the George Cross, the country's highest honour for bravery away from the battlefield, when it was created in 1940.

"It's a big thing for Bridlington," says Richard Jones, who has been researching Alderson and the town's experiences in World War Two.

"It's the first ever George Cross and that should be celebrated, it should be commemorated, and in turn the people who died here should be remembered."

Bridlington was not a strategic target for the Luftwaffe – the German air force – but like many towns on the east coast, it suffered as bombers released their remaining explosives before heading back across the North Sea. A key landmark, Flamborough Head, made finding the town easy.

Hundreds of bombs fell, causing destruction including to the Britannia Hotel and private houses.

Alderson, who was born in Sunderland, was a supervisor for the Bridlington Corporation. As ARP detachment leader, he trained his men in rescue work.

The George Cross was awarded for three dangerous operations Alderson and the team carried out in August 1940.

The first happened on 15 August. A pair of semi-detached houses were demolished by a bomb and Alderson tunnelled under the wreckage to rescue a woman trapped inside.

A few days later, two five-storey buildings were destroyed and 11 people trapped in the cellar.

Alderson again led the team. While the bombers were still nearby, he tunnelled by hand 13ft to 14ft under the wreckage and worked for almost four hours in cramped and unsafe conditions.

In a 1940 interview with the BBC, Alderson described how a partially collapsed farmhouse table was "half-supporting the beams and smashed walls of the floors above".

Lying on his side, he passed bricks and debris down a chain of men until there was just enough space to slide people out. With two children still under joists, he worked by torchlight and used car jacks "to raise the main joist a little" before rescuing them.

"By this time the cellar was filling with coal gas and water appeared to be rising on the floor," he said.

Just a few days later, a strike hit Foley's Cafe and Woolworths. Five people were trapped in the cellar.

"They had to tunnel in for hours," says Jones. "There was a burst pipe, so they were not only trapped by the wreckage and the dust and the plaster and rubble, but they were also filling up with water.

"For these guys to have been here and be able to tunnel under the wreckage and get people out alive, it was probably one of the bravest things you could possibly do."

A citation published in the London Gazette praised Alderson's "courage and devotion to duty, without the slightest regard for his own safety".

But although Alderson was the one to make the trip to Buckingham Palace and pose for the newsreel cameramen, he dedicated the award to the whole team.

He told the BBC: "I feel very honoured to have been awarded the George Cross, but don't forget that all the men of the Bridlington rescue parties were there too."

Today, a road and a care home are named after Alderson.

The brass plaque commemorating his actions was created in 1995, 30 years after his death, but was not put up at the time due to what Jones describes as health and safety concerns. It was kept in a shop and then stored in the town's library.

Inspired by the story, Jones campaigned for it to be finally put up on Prince Street this year.

"I just find something like this is so important," Jones says. "Thomas Alderson was a very humble man, he was a very brave man, a very heroic man and so was his team and he wore his George Cross for his team."

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