Kitty Bloor

Kitty Bloor is believed to have been born in  Łódź, Poland, in the early years of the 20^th century. She came to the UK as a teenage refugee after the end of the first Word War and settled in the East End of London. The circumstances are unclear but she was befriended by Lily Montagu, whose father had founded a merchant bank and been a Liberal MP for Whitechapel. Lily was much concerned for underprivileged working class and later was part of the formation of Liberal Judaism in the UK. It seemed that Lily was an important part of Kitty’s life story, helping and supporting her until her death.

Kitty was a member of West Central Jewish Girls Club founded by Lily Montagu (it later merged into the Jewish Girls Brigade).

The date of her marriage to James Bloor is uncertain, but they moved to Southport, Lancs where she gave birth to her son Gordon in 1942. James is believed to have served and died in the War.

During the 1940s and 50s, Kitty was the housekeeper and cook for the Jewish Blind Home near Dorking, Surrey.

She was taken to hospital with stomach cancer in 1956 and died in May 1960.

The plaque in her memory has been placed in the Burial Ground in 2023 by her son Gordon who has lived the majority of his life in Bath and for much of that in Combe Down, and who continues to further research the history of his mother’s life.