From “The Whitehaven News” 24 April 1941 page 2

ST. BEES GIRL TEACHER

Killed in London “Blitz”

Tragic news has reached St. Bees. The authorities in London have recovered the body of Miss Christine Kitchen (sic), eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kitchen, Main Street, St. Bees, following the severe air raid in London last week.

A charming girl in her 20’s, Miss Kitchen was an expert in domestic science and was doing good work in London’s East End, working in a communal feeding centre amongst the poor who had been rendered homeless. She took her degree in domestic science at Edinburgh University and obtained a teaching position in London. The news of her tragic death has cast a gloom over St. Bees, where she was popular.

Note: At this time the Kitchin family lived at 33, Main Street – one of the houses in Hampton Place. Fred Kitchin was a significant figure in village life, though perhaps something of an eccentric.

Miss Kitchin was living in Lambeth, at 14 Calais Street, when at about two in the morning a bomb demolished her home. She was alive when pulled from the rubble but did not regain consciousness.

Her body was returned to the village, and interred here on the afternoon of Sunday 27th.April, after lying overnight in St. Bees School Chapel.