On 25 April 1941 the @BelTel published an article headlined WHO IS THIS BOY?

He was found after the Easter Tuesday Raid in the Mater Hospital. Although he gave his name as ‘Billy’, efforts to trace his identity or relatives were unsuccessful

#BelfastBlitz #Blitz80

Described in the paper as a ‘bright youngster, perfectly mannered’ and a ‘likeable little chap’ whose father ‘wore a tin hat and goes on a big ship’.

As it turned out, ‘Billy’ was actually called Hugh!

He was found in the rubble of 30 Veryan Gardens during the Easter Tuesday Raid and brought to the Mater. His mother May and sisters Sue and Marie were killed when a parachute mine landed near their home.

Additionally, his aunt Jean, uncle Danny and cousin Danny were also killed in the blast. Pictured below is an image of the destruction caused by the parachute mine that landed at Veryan Gardens. (Belfast Telegraph image)

Last year we interviewed Hugh (pictured in 2018) as part of our Oral History Project and although he was too young to remember the events of Easter Tuesday and his ‘disappearance’ he described how his father (also Hugh) found out about the death of his wife and daughters.

‘He had a message, I've got a clipping, I don't know where it came from... well I know where it came from its from Norfolk, an American port…the tone of the cutting says "Wife and children killed- this message awaiting seaman here" it was from the British Consulate in Norfolk

they had been told I think obviously by the Navy here that this had happened and…"wife and three children killed by bombs in German raid" is another part of the headline…’

‘Obviously, he made his way home again and shortly after that he was given a compassionate discharge

he picked me up from my grandmothers or from whoever was looking after me in Whiteabbey or Greencastle and sent me to my Aunt Mary to stay with’

As part of our oral history project, we also welcome written submissions and we received the written testimony of Hugh’s cousin Maureen who recalled the events surrounding his ordeal.

‘I think that was six in two families that my grandmother lost that night. So eventually, we did find both of those children… I think one was three and the other one was two and a half… one was found in the field in his pyjamas and the other one was gone… maybe only one night

he could not identify himself and he was taken to an annex and he wasn’t tagged… even from which area that he came from… but I found him the next day. My girlfriend and I were out looking at bodies… there was a big market in the centre of Belfast

that was where they were just putting people in pine boxes and they left the lids [so] you could lift them and look and I did find one of the children there… never found the parents... I think we found my Aunt May but we never did find my Aunt Jenny.

My girlfriend, Ann, that came from Sheffield, she and I went out the next day and we did locate some people that we knew, but not the people that we were looking for... with the exception of Hugh.

Hugh was the two-and-a-half-year-old that lost his mother and two sisters, and we found him by sheer accident. We were at this hospital, which was our last stop of the day… and we found that the paediatrician at the hospital had taken this little lost boy home with her.

Then, I realized who it was, so I told my grandmother and they knew where this little boy was that had been lost and so we finally got him. The Dr. had taken him home and she questioned him and he seemed to answer to the name of Billy.'

Pictured below is Hugh in his father's arms along with his mother, May and sisters Sue and Marie.