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[Page] 23
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attack ceased about 12.30 but we had no
means of knowing when the enemy had
moved off. At last when I found that the
electric light was once more on, and that
the Cable was working on the adjacent
line of cable cars, I said good night to my
companion and left my post, some ten minutes
before 3.0. I was relieved to find no signs
of damage on my way home and more so to
know that my family had come safely through
the attack and without undue trepidation.
On the morrow though weary from excitement
and want of sleep I responded to a call
to repair at 2.0 p.m. to the West Port Police
Station to take duty as a Special. The tale
of damage in endless rumours was all
morning reaching one and on the whole
we had much cause for thankfulness.
The deaths numbered only 10, and the injured
about as many more. Of the former, no
less than five had been killed at one place
at the East end of Marshall Street on the South
side of the Street. Here five men instead of
taking refuge well inside the basement of the
house had gathered in a group by the
door. A bomb descended right in front

on the pavement and blew them all to pieces.
I visited the spot two days afterwards. A huge
crater in the pavement & street showed where
the bomb had struck, while the ruined stone-
-work at one side of the doorway, the great
dents in the walls and the complete destruc:
:tion of the window glass in the vicinity, evidenced
the force of the explosion. My post of
duty on Monday afternoon was at the
North entrance to George Watson's school in
Lauriston,and adjacent to the Royal Infirmary.
Here I had to stand at a gate and refuse
admission to the sight-seers, who wished to
see the damage caused by a bomb, which
dropped there. Here the explosion did cause
havoc to windows, woodwork etc and a good
deal of ugly, but not serious, damage to the
stone work. The bomb had dropped within
a few feet of the South East angle of the west
wing and made a crater in a 'solum', en:
:tirely made up of stone, some 10 feet in diameter
by 2 feet or so in depth. In the immediate vicinity
every window was entirely blown out, and the
wood work reduced to matchwood, while
in the rooms, and from the top of the portico
masses of plaster had fallen strewing the
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