During the morning of 7th December 1943, a German plane flew over the Westfield parish and fired its machine guns at cottages across the area. At Plumtree Cottages in Spray Lane, Joan Beeching, aged 28 was in her kitchen. She was hit several times by bullets and died later that day at Buchanan Hospital. Her son, lying asleep upstairs, and her neighbour escaped injury despite many other bullets passing through the houses.