Page 942 - Reading Mercury

1961

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Sat 14 Jan
FIRE SWEEPS GENERAL’S WOKINGHAM HOME
Rescue bid to save guest fails
Unsuccessful attempts to save the life of a guest in a Wokingham house fire were
described by Lt.-Gen. Percy Molloy, late of the Royal Marines, who sat in a borrowed
dressing gown in the lounge of his daughter’s home. He told the “Reading Mercury”
how he and his wife had escaped from the outbreak which swept their 14-roomed
home at 15, Crescent Road, Wokingham, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The guest--69 years old Mrs. Stella Norman Edmunds--was the former wife of the
now Recorder of Bath, Mr. Humfrey Henry Edmunds.
Mrs. Edmunds—a polio victim who walked only with difficulty—was said by
General Molloy to have arrived at his house by car on Monday, having travelled from
London. “She was looking for accommodation and told my wife that she had known
her sister,” said the General.
General Molloy said that the fire was discovered after he--recently recovered from
pneumonia--had a coughing attack soon after 3 a.m. His wife thought she could smell
something burning, and he had suggested that she checked to see if anything had been
left on the kitchen stove. He realised the gravity of the situation when his wife opened
the bedroom door and shouted: “The whole house is full of smoke.” Together they
went to Mrs. Edmunds’ room and on opening the door were confronted by a wall of
flame leaping from floor to ceiling. They shouted but it was clear no one could live in
such an inferno they escaped down the only staircase. General Molloy said that his
wife’s acute sense of smell had probably saved their lives; it was she who had first
detected the smoke, and had they remained in their room for another 10 minutes the
passage and the one staircase might well have been impassable. “My wife is a cripple,
and could not have climbed from a first-floor window,” said the general.
On leaving the house, General Molloy and his wife were given shelter by their
neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Trench. Later they went to stay with their daughter,
Mrs. Diana Brimblecombe, at Brittons Farm, Wokingham.
General Molloy said that it was remarkable how much had been salvaged, although
many of their personal belongings—including clothes—had been lost. Several items
had been recovered from the debris, such as Mrs. Molloy’s silver dressing table set
and some of her jewellery.
The kitchen, dining room and another ground floor room had escaped damage, but
the floor of the room in which Mrs. Edmunds was sleeping collapsed. The fire is
thought to have started in Mrs. Edmund’s bedroom.
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General Molloy—who celebrates his 85 birthday next month—has lived in the
Crescent Road house for almost 30 years. In March last year General Molloy was
presented with the gold badge of the British Legion—the highest award a member can
receive—for his services to the branch of which he has president for many years.
Mrs Edmunds, who had lived at Crowthorne at various times, was the daughter of
the late Mrs. Eugenie Hanson, for many years headmistress of Broadmoor School.

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Sat 21 Jan
“HAPPIEST PLACE IN A HOSPITAL”
Maternity unit opened at Wokingham

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