Palace Hotel Torquay RAF plaque

Visited the Palace Hotel today for a talk.

The hotel was used as a military hospital for RAF officers during the Second World War but on 25 October 1942 a German bomber scored a direct hit on the East Wing, severing it almost completely from the rest of the building. Tragically, the hotel was full at the time with 203 in-patients. The result was that 64 people were killed, including nurses, and one person was missing. The hospital was evacuated but on 8 January there was another raid resulting in a direct hit and the Palace was abandoned for the remainder of the war.

It reopened as a hotel on 5 March 1948