More than 350 bombs fell on Wimbledon during the Second World War, killing 150 residents and injuring a further 1,071. Around 12,000 houses were damaged and 810 destroyed.

Ruth Mansergh is a full-time mother of two who has worked as a journalist and as a freelance sub-editor/proofreader for publications including Financial Adviser and the Daily Mail. She was brought up in Cumbria, went to school in North Yorkshire, and has a degree in English with Social History from Leeds University. She has inherited her fathers keen interest in local history.