It was the worst civilian disaster of the second world war and was covered up by officials to keep morale high.

On March 3, 1943, hundreds of people dashed to the then new Bethnal Green tube station after air raid sirens sounded.

But when a woman carrying a baby tripped and fell into an elderly man in front of her on the wet stairs, a domino effect started and about 300 people were crushed into a space at the bottom of the stairs, measuring about 15ft by 11ft.

Sixty-two children, 84 women and 27 men died of suffocation but, so the enemy did not use the tragedy as a means of propaganda and to keep morale high, the government kept quiet over the incident until after the war.

Walderslade resident Margaret McKay, 66, was the youngest child to be rescued from the crush of bodies. She was six months old.

Her mother Ellen died in the station. She was only 28 and left her husband George Ridgway to look after their young daughter.

Mrs McKay lived with her grandparents during the remaining years of the conflict while her father was at war. She grew up knowing she had been involved in the accident, but believing her stepmother was actually her natural mother.

It was not until she was 20, when she decided to emigrate to Australia, that she found out about her mother – while she and her father walked to the council office to speak to them about a sum of money owed to Margaret as part of a trust fund set up for the survivors of the disaster.

She said: “He was traumatised by it, to get news like that while he was at war.

“I think they were trying to protect me. He did not want to tell me about it so I never questioned him.”

Mr Ridgway died in 1981, leaving Mrs McKay to find out more about her mother.

She still knows very little and has not been in touch with her mother’s family.

Survivors and relations have set up the Stairway to Heaven charity to get a permanent memorial built at Bethnal Green tube station.

The 66th anniversary memorial service took place on March 1, at St John’s Church in Bethnal Green.

If you think you can help Mrs McKay or the charity, or want more information, log on to www.stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org.