When there has been a tragedy
 

One of my aunt's DNA matches had a very brief online tree, but there was a mention of Portsmouth, so I thought this might be the link, and investigated....

1939 has a family of four, living in Coburg Street, Portsmouth. A bombing raid in January 1941 left only one surviving, and the neighbours dead as well. So many died that Churchill visited the city at the end of the month.

I cannot find what happened to that surviving child. In Croydon, such children were often shipped out to the colonies, and I suspect that happened here.

The connection here is not so significant as to warrant me contacting the match, but what would you do in such a case?

One of OH's cousins died on 5th Dec 1940 at aged 15 in a bombing raid, he died at 12 Cowper Road, Portsmouth.

Edit to say: he didn't live at that address so must have been there for another reason. His father had died 4 months previously on active duty he was Chief Petty Officer, Honors: D S M on H.M.S. Esk., Royal Navy he is buried in Hamburg.

The thing about the deaths, Maggie, is that virtually nobody died in their houses. They must have had a warning and gone to shelters. Most of those in Coburg Street had headed for Fratton School and that took a direct hit. Googling, I found this, a Gazeteer of Portsmouth, which looks as if it was uploaded this Spring: https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/wp-con...aedia-2011.pdf

First hand account of Portsmouth bombings one 10 Jan 1941 in the first link and another in the second link mention of Fratton Road but the third link says it was Arundel Street School that took a direct hit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peo...a2716391.shtml

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peo...a2636318.shtml

http://www.liblog.port.ac.uk/blog/2016/01/14639/

How old would the child be in 1945 because I assume there was a lull until the war was over before they could continue the child migration project and they may have been settled with a family here or been too old by that time.

The records I have accessed were for Canada and only went up until 1935. I know they were still doing this until as late as 1967 but it was less common.

I've just realised that the cousin changed all the forenames in their tree, probably to protect the identites of living people. In which case I most definitely don't make contact.

Thank you, Magge, for all those links. Arundel Street runs into Fratton Street and it looks as if it was one and the same place:

Title: Photograph of Fratton Street Schools, Arundel Street, Portsmouth
Description:

Looking east along Arundel Street. After completion of operations by Warings (Contractors) Ltd. Shows 'Black Dog' Public House on left (undamaged).


No 95 War Debris Clearance, Portsmouth.


Format: B& W print
Date: 6 Jul 1944
Held by: Portsmouth History Centre, not available at The National Archives

My aunt grew up in Portsmouth and stayed there throughout the war because her mother didn't want to be parted from her. The area she lived in was wrecked by town planners, not bombs, but those photos are dreadful, unimaginable, and the descriptions horrendous.