Memorials & Monuments
on the Isle of Wight
- Biography -
- Arnold John Ferrari -

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PRESS

Saturday, April 12, 1941 Page 3

SOUTH COAST AIR RAIDS
After enjoying a comparatively peaceful period for a few nights a South Coast district again received the attentions of enemy aircraft during the early hours of Saturday. In three places high explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped and unfortunately there was one fatal casualty. John Ferrari, aged 16, an evacuee from Portsmouth, who was a member of a village fire party, and was staying with Mr. and Mrs. H.P. Foster, was killed instantly by a piece of metal from an explosive incendiary bomb which penetrated his chest and severed an artery. [...]

(not all the report has been transcribed)

Page 4

SHORWELL
Young Fireman's Funeral. - The funeral of John Ferrari, aged 16, a member of the local fire fighting party, who lost his life on Saturday while on duty, took place on Thursday. The Rev. T.L. Kember officiated at a service in the Parish Church and at the cemetery. The lad's parents and grandfathers from Portsmouth attended, and the other principal mourners were Mr. and Mrs. H.P. Foster, Mr. and Mrs. Misselbrook, and scholars from St. Luke's School, Portsmouth, which the deceased attended before his evacuation. Others present were the Mayor of Newport (Capt. J.S. Brown), Ald. W. Blake, J.P. (chairman of the Fire Brigade Committee), Chief Officer Fairbrass, members of the Civil Defence Service, and firemen from the Newport, Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin, Cowes and Ventnor brigades numbering about 70. There were wreaths from his fellow A.R.P. workers, and from the fire brigades mentioned. Mr. A.A. Whitefield, M.B.E. (clerk to the R.D.C.) was unavoidably prevented from attending.