Welcome to GeorgeKeen.info... This website has been commissioned by Mrs MT Kerr (Kerr-Keen) in memory of her father George Frederick William Keen, who, along with others, attended to a number of burning munitions trucks bombed by the Luftwaffe August 1940 in the village of Tongham, Surrey.
The night of August 22 1940, George Henry Leach was at home. It was nearing midnight when he heard the bombers overhead, then a deafening explosion...
...George Keen and those who gathered to help, including George Leach, members of the local Fire Services and an unknown soldier placed themselves in great danger averting a certain catastrophe, undoubtedly preventing untold damage, reportedly saving the lives of those in nearby homes.
On 15 November 1940 the London Gazette announced that George Frederick William Keen and George Henry Leach were to be awarded the George Medal, stating: Both men acted quite regardless of their own safety and at very considerable personal risk. George Keen GM and George Leach GM were as a matter of fact the very first working for the railway to be awarded the George Medal, instituted 24 September 1940. |
