The Chatham Bus Disaster occurred outside HM Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, on the evening of 4 December 1951.  A double-decker bus drove into a company of fifty-two cadets from the Chatham Division RMVCC of whom 24 were killed and 18 injured.  At the time it was the highest loss of life in any British road accident.

The cadets, aged 9 to 13, were marching from Melville Royal Marine Barracks, Gillingham, to the Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham, to attend a boxing match.

The company of cadets were divided into three platoons, with the rear one consisting of new recruits who had not yet received uniforms.  They were generally under the command of cadet NCOs and the only adult present was Lieutenant Clarence Murrayfield Carter RM, a regular officer and the unit’s Adjutant.

The column was about fifteen yards long and marching three abreast on the left-hand side of the road.  The cadets in uniform were wearing Royal Marines standard-issue dark blue battledress and berets, although they had white belts and white lanyards on their shoulders.   There were no lights, that not being a requirement at the time.  The cadets left Melville Barracks at about 1740 and at approximately 1757 they were marching down Dock Road, just past the gates of the Dockyard.  Street lighting was poor and it was reported to have been a very dark and foggy night.

As the cadets marched passed the municipal swimming pool, in what was a particularly dark part of the street (because a street lamp had failed), they were hit from behind by a bus belonging to the Chatham & District Traction Company.  The bus had its sidelights on, but not its headlights, but this was perfectly legal and considered to be normal practice at the time.  Lt Carter, who was moving up and down the flanks of the column of cadets, told the subsequent inquest that he saw the bus coming and told the cadets to move into the kerb as far as they could, assuming the bus would move around them.  The bus driver  told the inquest that he did not see the cadets at all and drove into the column of boys.

Seventeen boys died immediately and another seven died later in hospital, all but one on the same night. Those who were uninjured were all in the front ranks. The boys who died were given the privilege of a military funeral; twenty of the boys had their funeral at Rochester Cathedral on 12 December 1951, conducted by the Bishop of Rochester.  Thousands of local people stood outside the cathedral and lined the route of the funeral procession to Gillingham Cemetery. Royal Marines guarded the coffins and acted as pall bearers and the ceremony was attended by the Second Sea Lord, the Commandant-General Royal Marines, and the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary of the Admiralty.  Three of the boys who were Roman Catholics had a separate funeral at the Church of Our Lady, Gillingham, conducted by the Bishop of Southwark.

An inquest was held on 14 December 1951 at the Royal Naval Hospital, Gillingham, before the North-East Kent Coroner. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death. The boys’ parents received compensation from the bus company.

The accident resulted in improved street lighting in the Medway Towns and the decision of all three services that a red light would henceforward be shown at the rear of all columns marching along roads at night. 

Every year on the Sunday closest to the event, the Chatham RMC detachment of the SCC (as the successor to Chatham Division RMVCC) holds a memorial parade at the cemetery in which the cadets were laid to rest.

A memorial service was held in December 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniverary of the didaster, attended by most of the survivors of the accident and families of those who died.  HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Captain General Royal Marines, also attended as did representatives from the other Divisions of the RMVCC.

A reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Romans, Chapter 8: 18-30

 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Sermon by Fr, Tom Pyke, Chaplain RN

It is seventy years ago since the events of that night on the 4^th December 1951, but as you read or as you hear the account of the tragedy, it is the most natural thing to groan with sorrow, perhaps with anger, certainly with frustration that such horrors can happen to children and young people. Perhaps we have groaned inwardly with the same sort of feelings as we’ve heard about the abuse, the failings and the lack of care that led to the death of Arthur Laninjo-Hughes. Why is it that these things happen, and repeatedly happen, and we seem so powerless to prevent them?

Groaning, but with purpose, was what our world community was doing in the middle of November as its representatives met for COP26 – mourning the damage that has been done to our natural world, our only home, over the years of rapid industrialization in the last 250 years. We groan at what we known has been done wrong, we groan as we recognize that we have been party to that wrongdoing ourselves as we’ve blithely gone on using fossil fuels, when we knew we shouldn't, when we’ve carried on demanding the latest trainers or the most up-to-date phone to entertain us, or to make us look fashionable. We get frustrated with the world as it is, we get frustrated with ourselves and we groan inwardly, and perhaps outwardly too.

 St Paul, one of the earliest Christian thinkers new about that frustration. He knew that persecutions and deaths and disasters like this disaster at Dock Road happen, and seem a senseless waste, a waste of life, a waste of creation that God had put so much care and effort into. What, we wonder, had life got in store for those 17 boys who were killed instantly in the accident and the other 7 who died within 24 hrs from their injuries: What would they have made of therir lives, who would they have been, who would they have brought into the world as their own sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren? Would some of them served in the Royal Marines; would some of them seen action and showed great bravery? We will never know. Instead their lives were cut short and wasted, and we groan as we think of them, and our loss.

 The answer to our groans, according to St Paul, is the revealing of a relationship. Just as we drawn back the curtains in the morning to reveal a new day starting outside, so a curtain will be drawn back in our minds so that we can fully appreciate and fully understand the relationship that God has with his people, those who he loves to call his children. Until that relationship is understood and known the world is frustrated, and will be frustrated. It can only groan because it doesn’t know what its true purpose is.

The true purpose of the world, and of every atom of it, every ounce of matter, every life and every future, is to share in this relationship with God, where God calls us 'his children' with love, and we call God 'our father', and thank him for making and shaping us and putting this world into our care. Seventy years ago 24 lives were cut short in the Chatham Bus Disaster, but that doesn’t mean that the relationship that God had with those boys was cut short and ended in frustration. Far from it. They live in his love and care to this day as his children.

What we have in our struggle not to be frustrated, not to groan at the situations in life we have been given is the gift of hope. Hope is strange stuff, for it is solid and real, and yet it is not ours yet. Like a Christmas present that has not yet been given, it is all about faith in the future. We must be patient, and then we'll receive it. St Paul writes:

'For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.'

We have so much to be hopeful for as we put our faith for the future in our fine young people who are Royal Marine Cadets or Sea Cadets, and in what they will achieve in their full lives, They fill us with hope, as those who died here 70 years ago would have done if they had lived their future. Amen

 Let us commit ourselves not to groan with frustration but to live in the optimism and hopefulness for the future of those who died here 70 years ago, using the words of the The Optimist Creed – written by Christian Larson

PROMISE YOURSELF

 To be so strong that nothing

can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity

to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel

that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything

and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,

and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others

as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past

and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times

and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself

that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,

and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,

not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side

so long as you are true to the best that is in you.