Service to mark 35th anniversary of Deal bombing

Friends and relatives of the 11 Royal Marines who were killed in the IRA bombing of Deal Barracks in 1989 will gather on Sunday to remember them.

The site of the blast has been refurbished by Dover District Council in time for the private ceremony which will mark the 35th anniversary of the atrocity.

The Royal Marines left Deal in 1996 but return each year to play a summer concert on the Memorial Bandstand and at the service, which is held at the exact time of the explosion.

The service will be led by Reverend Jane Walker, whose brother, Bob Simmonds, was among the victims. Wreaths will also be laid around the bandstand on Walmer Green.

The IRA claimed responsibility for the bomb on 22 September 1989 which blew apart the recreation centre at the Royal Marines School of Music.

The blast killed 10 soldiers, while another soldier died a month later of injuries sustained in the blast. Many others were injured.

A week after the blast, the band marched through the town, leaving 11 empty spaces.

Derek Lindars, a former Royal Marine and chairman of the Deal Memorial Bandstand Trust, has vivid memories of the day.

“I was cycling to work when the bomb exploded," he said.

"When I first arrived the reports were of a gas explosion, but the smell that was coming up from the rubble made it clear it was a device.

“The bomb exploded at the gable end of the church which for many years was the concert hall for the staff band."

He said when the Royal Marines the band plays in the town "they feel the warmth from the people of Deal and that sense of history behind them”.

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