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Although this tragedy happened before she was born and it was never discussed in the family, Susan Straw (nee Stephenson) always sensed the gravity of the events which had resulted in the death of her brother. Lynne Brighouse reveals how the recent death of Susan’s mother led her to find out more.

A reference in the Derby Telegraph's Bygones section to the tragic discovery of the bodies of three young boys found in the cab of a burnt-out lorry in March 1943 prompted Susan Straw to research into the circumstances which resulted in her brother’s death.

Susan, who grew up in Parcel Terrace, Derby, in the late 1940s and 1950s, was curious to find out more about the tragedy, which she feels always hung over her family as she grew up, though it was rarely talked about.

“The incident happened five years before I was born and, in those days, people didn’t really discuss things like that,” she said. “If bad things happened, you were all expected to just get on with your life and not dwell on them. I’m not sure that my mother ever really got over it, though.

“I recall as a child clearly being told that I was not allowed to play near the brickyard because my brother had died there in a fire. I didn’t know anything about the circumstances but all the children on Parcel Terrace knew the area was seriously out of bounds. It was never up for discussion or argument.”

Susan’s brother, Gerald Stephenson, pictured above left, was aged only five when the awful incident took place. He was the oldest of the three youngsters who perished. He, along with two other boys, Brian Lester, four, and his cousin, Keith Lester, three, had, it seems, left home around 4.30pm to play near their homes with a group of other local children.

“Much of the area at that time was industrial open land,” Susan recalled.

“According to the inquest, which was reported extensively in the Evening Telegraph at the time, Keith Lester had managed to get hold of some matches.”

Keith’s little sister, Margaret, described seeing him experiment with setting fire to the grass, then stamping the fire out. This was her last memory of her brother.

It seems that the youngsters then split off from the main group and made their way to the nearby brickyard, in Rowditch, close to a field in which some disused vehicles were being stored.

What happened after that is unclear.

At the inquest, the night watchman at the brickyard, an Alfred Lomas, said he had chased three boys away from the lorry park at about 5.30pm that evening. He said “one was biggish, aged about 12, and two were tiny tots”.

Less than half-an-hour later, a lorry was spotted in flames by 16-year-old Gordon Arthur Penny, who raised the alarm. But, despite the youth’s prompt action and a brave attempt by James Raynor, of the nearby Rowditch Garage, to open the cab door and extinguish the flames, the lorry turned into an inferno of intense heat and he was beaten back.

Mr Raynor criticised other witnesses for not attempting to help.

No-one realised that the boys were trapped inside the lorry until the fire service had extinguished the flames and the horrific discovery was made.

The bodies of the dead boys were huddled together on the floor of the cab, too badly charred to be identified. Purely by their size, they were assumed to be the three boys from Parcel Terrace who had not returned home and were being frantically searched for by their mothers.

“My mother must have been devastated by what happened,” said Susan. “At that time Gerald was her only child and she had believed him to be in safe hands.

“She went on to have six more children, two boys and four girls. A baby picture of each of us hung on the wall alongside Gerald’s and there was always an air of sadness around those photographs.”

The inquest into the boys’ deaths recorded a verdict of “death by misadventure” as it could not be firmly established what had happened.

An examination of the burnt-out lorry revealed that the fuel tank was empty and there was no battery on the vehicle. The cap to the petrol auto-vac feed tank was off, however, and hanging on its chain and it was assumed that fumes from the tank may have been inadvertently ignited by a match.

The doors to the lorries were quite difficult to open and how the boys managed to climb several feet up into the cab and then become trapped in there remains a mystery.

“I still don’t know the full details of what happened that day but I have a better understanding of what my parents and the other inhabitants of Parcel Terrace must have gone through,” said Susan.

“My mother, Marjorie Stephenson, died in September this year, aged 90. She never discussed Gerald’s death but I’m sure she carried huge sadness with her over what happened throughout her life.”

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County:  Derbyshire

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