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	Picture source: Google Streetview
The Bolton Arms was situated at 46 Swan Street. This pub is now in residential use.
Source: David Fisher
In 1944, shortly after D-Day, some black American soldiers from the 3247th Quartermaster Service Company were sat having a quiet drink in this pub when they were confronted by 'white' US Military Police, and told to return to base as they were improperly dressed and without passes. The GI's complied, but later returned with weapons and opened fire on the MP's who were by now drinking in another Kingsclere village pub called the Crown. In the resulting fusilade, two black soldiers and the landlords wife lay dead. This was just one of many race related incidents between white and black American soldiers who were stationed in the UK during WW2. This info was taken from Peter Caddick-Adams book 'Sand and Steel, a new history of D-Day'
Stu Goodson (September 2020)
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