The Guildford Pub Bombings - 5th October 1974

This coming Saturday is the 50th anniversary of the Guildford pub bombings.

Memorial at Quaker's Acre

For someone who was brought up on the outskirts of the town, the events that took place that evening at the “Seven Stars” and “Horse and Groom” pubs in the centre of the town will never be forgotten. Four soldiers and 1 civilian lost their lives while 65 were injured (30 seriously).

Although Aldershot (10 miles from Guildford) is the traditional home of the British Army, many pubs in Guildford town centre were popular with service personnel based at nearby Pirbright barracks (located in the next village from where I lived). 

The "Horse and Groom"

The “Horse and Groom” in North Street and the “Seven Stars” just up the road in Swan Lane were two such establishments which would have been bursting at the seams on a Saturday evening. The Provisional IRA had authorised attacks a year earlier as army pubs were considered a “soft” target.

The "Seven Stars"

In fact servicemen did not make up the majority of customers in the “Horse and Groom” that night. It was also a popular haunt of many local people. 

The bombings cast a dark shadow over the General Election that took place 5 days later.

Although I was only 15 years old at the time, my brother (who was 19) was out with his friends that evening and when the news came through on the TV of the atrocities taking place just a few miles away, my Mother and Father were very worried that he was OK. 

Luckily he came home at around 11pm and in fact had been drinking in the “White Lyon” in Worplesdon and had been nowhere near the town centre. However as most of the town centre had been closed off, a good number had converged on the “White Lyon” and he was fully aware of what had going on.

So 50 years on, my thoughts go out to all those who perished and were injured on that fateful evening. God bless them all.

The Guildford Dragon reflecting on 40 years since the bombings