This floor stone, laid in February 2004, can be found towards the west end of the nave. It commemorates the role of firewatchers who sat on the cathedral roof during air raids in World War II. Each night four Fire Guards assumed their posts on the roof top, the senior guard paid by the city and the remaining three by the Dean and Chapter. During 1942, sixteen high explosive bombs fell on the precincts, destroying the library and causing serious damage to the Deanery. In addition, many of the 10,000 incendiary devices dropped on the city landed on the cathedral roof, and if left any of these could have resulted in a major fire. Firewatchers, risking their lives, managed to throw these to the ground where they could be extinguished.
Sources; see standard cathedral sources; also Canterbury Cathedral Chronicle September 1942 ‘The raids on Canterbury’
DL