The horrific killing of America and the western world’s golden boy on November 22, 1963, was arguably the most talked about news event of the 20th century. Reporter Andy Gray asked the famous question: “Where were you when you heard Kennedy had been shot?”

Former borough mayor Peter Morgan, 87, of Park Road, Sittingbourne, said: “I was listening to the BBC news on the radio in our breakfast room when I heard of his death.

“It was the morning after the assassination and I was sitting around the table with my wife and three daughters.

“Because I had three girls, my first thoughts were for the President’s wife, as we were told she was sat beside her husband with blood pouring out of him.

“For my children, JFK was someone they only knew by name, but I admired him.

“As far as I was concerned, he was going to bring about a new America because he was such an enlightened man.

“I was a religion and politics teacher at Westlands School at the time.

“I didn’t broach the subject of his death in class that morning because I was afraid I’d get too upset and wouldn’t be able to teach a detached lesson.

“Besides, I couldn’t expect the children to understand the enormous consequences of it because they didn’t have any political experience.

“It was a tragedy for the US and the world to lose such an inspiring and enlightened leader.”

Bob Watkinson, 72, of Bell Road, Sittingbourne, said: “I was living in a flat in Sheffield city centre with my wife Sheila in November 1963.

“I heard the news about Kennedy as we were queuing to go into a nearby folk club where I was performing that night.

“Someone ran across the road and told us JFK had been shot. It was a massive shock, we saw Kennedy as our big hope for the future.

“I still performed that night, but the talk among the audience was all about JFK.

“My wife and I had been married for six weeks, and as our student flat had no TV or radio, we had no means of communication.

“The following day, to get news on the assassination we went to a TV shop in the high street.

“There were lots of other people standing, gawping at the sets, which is when it really hit home what had happened.

“For us, the response to Kennedy’s death was akin to the Twin Towers attacks years later.

“We just couldn’t get to grips with the fact the Golden Boy had just been taken out.

“The aftermath seemed to go on and on, and we kept up with developments via my parents’ TV because they lived close by.

“I hadn’t thought about JFK’s death for a very long time, but it’s one of those events you know exactly where you were when it happened.

“If I’d been asked about something else major in my life, I’d probably have trouble remembering it.”

Geoff Drury, 69, a retired engineer from Lammas Drive, Milton Regis, said: "I was a member of the Air Training Corp and it was during one of our twice-weekly parade nights at the squadron HQ at Westlands School when news came through of his death.

“Some other lads and I were in the radio room, flicking around on a shortwave set trying to communicate with squadrons around the UK and abroad as part of our training.

“It would have been about 8pm when by accident we came across an American channel which announced Kennedy had been assassinated.

“We must have heard the news before it was announced on the BBC because when I went home and told my mum Kennedy had been shot she was in total disbelief.

“We waited for the 10pm news to come on and the headline was, ‘Kennedy’s been shot’.

“Our immediate thought was, ‘what effect is this going to have on America and the rest of the world in general’?

“It was a talking point at work, but I’m not really an emotional person, and being 19 at the time, my interest was girls, not politics.

“We were discussing the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death at bowls the other week, and about where we were when we heard the news.

“I was able to tell them I’d been one of the first people in the UK to hear he’d been assassinated.”

Ex-mayor, Cllr Pat Sandle, 74, from Beach Approach, Warden, said: “I was living in Bethnal Green, London, sitting in front of the TV nursing my three-month-old daughter when there was break in programmes for a newsflash.

“Then a sombre voice made an announcement that ‘John F Kennedy, President of America’ had been assassinated. I was absolutely devastated.

“My husband was at work and my other two children were in bed, and as we had no phone,

I had no one to share the news with.

"I waited up for my husband, and as he came through the door I said to him, ‘guess what’?He couldn’t believe it either.

“I remember waking the next morning to check if it was absolutely true and it was a topic of conversation at the school gates that day.

“It was unreal and something you could never imagine happening. And as the story developed, things seemed to get worse and worse – it was like watching a bad American movie.

“With JFK, we felt we had someone who was at last standing up to the USSR – here was the man who was going to look after us.

“Now he was gone, the dread feeling in the back of everyone’s mind was maybe this was the moment we were heading for another world war.”