Robert Greenwood Tarran (1892 to 1955) was a well-known, self-made builder and contractor based in Hull and beyond. His businesses were very successful but his career was not without controversy; it was tainted more than once by accusations of fraud, one resulting in a high profile court case in 1947. For the duration of World War Two, Tarran was Hull’s Chief Air Raid Warden. In this role Tarran was responsible for Hull’s Air Raid Warden Service, working alongside various departments of Hull Corporation and many other organisations such as the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS). He was also Sheriff of Hull during the war in 1940/41, and was therefore a high profile figure throughout this period and beyond. In July 1941, after some of the heaviest bombing raids of World War Two on Hull, Tarran wrote a report on the practice of “Blitz (or night) trekking”, in which people living in areas of high risk from the bombing trekked out to the outskirts of cities and to neighbouring villages to avoid the bombs and to get a better night’s sleep, sleeping rough until returning to their homes the next day. During World War Two, this happened on a fairly large scale in Hull and in particular in East Hull because of its proximity to the city’s main docks, which were a Luftwaffe target. Tarran’s report was the inspiration for this book, and is transcribed in full in an appendix. It is particularly fitting to publish this book in 2021, the eightieth anniversary of the Hull Blitz. We will remember them. 60 pages with some images.

Christine Pinder - December 2021