Thomas Hawkett, who worked in a men's lavatory in Oxford Street,
spotted a suspicious parcel left behind in a cubicle on the
evening of June 24 1939.Believing it to be a bomb, he did not
waste time calling the police. Instead he picked it up, dumped
it in a bucket of water, and hosed it down, knowing this would
render the gelignite charge redundant. He stood over it and
watched as the fuse and charge floated to the surface. Police
then arrived and took it off his hands. A string of bombs went
off that night in central London causing £1,000 damage and
blinding a 17-year-old boy in one eye. The documents, released
by the National Archives in Kew, Surrey, also give an insight
into public anger at the IRA campaign. Following the explosions
angry mobs surged around the West End looking for those
responsible and pinning the blame on a number of innocent
parties.One German student, who had run from the scene to alert
the press, found himself at the mercy of an angry crowd until a
policeman came to his aid. Hawkett,