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Continued from Part 1 — A6137066

Hartlepool bombed

Hartlepool suffered one of its worst air raids on 12th May 1941. A number of people were killed and many more injured, including those in Lumley Square. Among the residents was my cousin Arthur George Bone and his family — mother Rose Eleanor (Née Rump) and her mother, Louisa Rump. Arthur’s dad, a Warrant Officer Telegraphist and also called George, was away with the Royal Navy, being attached to the Royal Indian Navy.

A bomb struck between their house and the one next door. Arthur’s mam was found dying along the road: she was clutching Arthur whose only injury was a cut on the cheek — in the shape of a letter ‘A’; Auntie Rose had apparently been bringing Arthur downstairs at the time of the explosion; she died later that day in Hartlepool Municipal Hospital. In the house next door the baby was killed I I believe this was 11 months old Dorothy Chitty)and my young aunt Elsie, my Godmother, staying overnight with her friend, survived. She never recovered from the trauma and died in 1949 at Winterton Hospital. CWGC records show that 11 people were killed that night at 8 and Back 8 Lumley Square.

Newspaper reporting was very different in WW2 compared with the Great War. The day after the raid the Hartlepool Mail reported “little enemy activity” in the area. A look in the ‘In Memoriam’ columns a year later gave the lie to that! Compare this with the widespread reporting of the sinking of HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy in September of 1914 where the dead were named and survivors tales published in the Times.

Telegrams were despatched to uncle George far away in India, and they followed him half across the world as he returned home on leave, but they never caught up with him. He found out by turning into Lumley Square to see the rubble where once his home had been.

I have a new brother — and sisters

At first Arthur stayed with his mam’s family, but then uncle George asked his sister, my mother, who had been Rose’s best friend, to look after him, and so he came to live in Downside Road, where his father spent his subsequent leaves. He turned up unannounced one night at our front door and Arthur and I were dragged out of bed to see him. He plunged a hand into his duffel bag and came up with two tins of boiled sweets. I can still remember the excitement; by now sweets were very scarce indeed. I can still remember my disappointment when I opened mine to find it was half empty Uncle George always had a sweet tooth!

Of course I now had a rival to vie for my mother and father’s attention and I do remember that my nose was a bit out of joint to start with, but only one thing specifically. It seemed to me that my dad always had a plate full of bacon, whereas I would only have a small amount. I never forgot it although it can’t have happened too often and dad, who was working 12 hour shifts, going off for Home Guard training and doing part-time as a firewatcher, needed it more than I — but I didn’t see it that way at the time.

Arthur and uncle George were not the only ones to stay with us. Quite soon afterwards my mother’s young sister Freda came to live with us, and later on another sister, May came too, with her friend, to be nearer the munitions factory where they had obtained jobs. So now I had a brother and some elder ‘sisters’ to spoil us. It had been Auntie May who had chosen my Christian name.

Beware submarines

All the time I was becoming more aware of what was happening around me. It was impressed upon all of us kids how particularly important it was to carry our gas masks everywhere and to keep the blackout intact at home. German pilots could apparently see a small light from many miles away and would attack our house individually and us personally. It was very difficult to resist the temptation to pull those special curtains back to look out when shouts of “Incendiaries” were heard in the road outside. My mother told the story that one night the ARP Warden knocked at our door and complained that we were showing a light, Dad went out with him to find out where. The Warden laid on his back beneath the front window and pointed upwards “There!” Dad promised to do something about it when he heard we were about to suffer a localised attack from German submarines.

Continued in Paart 3 - A6682926

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