A wartime tragedy
DEVASTATION: Queen Victoria Square, May 8, 1941
The Way it Was
In partnership with Hull History Centre
By Martin Taylor, city archivist at Hull History Centre
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
As the city celebrated the anniversary of VE Day in May, the media highlighted Hull’s traumatic experience in the blitz, and the iconic image of the Prudential Assurance building tower amid the smoking ruin of Queen Victoria Square on May 8, 1941 was again publicised.
Many rumours circulated at the time and in the 80 years since about the bombing of the Prudential, and many questions have been asked. This is an attempt to tell the story.
The Hull offices of the Prudential Assurance Company were built in 1904 to designs by the Prudential’s favourite architect Alfred Waterhouse, on a corner site at the southern end of the newly developed King Edward Street.
The focal point of the building was one of Waterhouse’s trademark towers, which dominated what was then known as City Square but what is now Queen Victoria Square. The tower was occupied by the main staircase of the building.
After the outbreak of war, the basement of the Prudential building was designated as an air-raid shelter for the inhabitants of the surrounding area.
BEFORE THE BOMBING: Queen Victoria Square c.1930. The Prudential building can be seen on the left
Some of them sought refuge there when the air raid sirens sounded shortly after midnight on May 8. Probably about 3am – although the records are unclear as to when it happened – the Prudential was hit by a bomb.
At dawn that day, the Prudential building was a smouldering ruin. Only the tower remained, leaning at an angle. It was demolished for safety reasons the following day.
There are many rumours about what had happened. It was thought that naval personnel, including members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) had been in the building when it was hit, as the Admiralty had offices there.
It was believed that hoses had been turned on the flames and feared that people sheltering in the basement were drowned.
Figures as high as 200 were rumoured to be the number of casualties. It was said that rather than recover the bodies, quicklime was used to bury them in situ.
Because of the impact of the rumours on morale, the City Engineer’s Department, which was in charge of rescue, demolition and repair, investigated the incident very carefully. Their report, marked as ‘secret’, recorded their initial findings:
DESTROYED: Interior of the Prudential building. Picture credit: Historic England
The building was hit by a high explosive bomb which appears to have demolished the boiler room in the middle of the basement (maybe even falling straight down the building’s central light well) fracturing the gas main. Within 15 minutes the Prudential was “a white hot inferno.”
In the opinion of the City Engineer there was no doubt that the people sheltering in the basement would have been killed instantly. All the remains subsequently recovered had been badly burned.
Because of the heat it was impossible for rescue parties to enter the ruins for 48 hours.
The ground and upper three floors had collapsed into the basement. Military help had to be called on to move the rubble before the basement could be accessed.
The staff of the City Engineer’s Department took great trouble to try and establish who had been killed, making diligent enquiries and using other means of identification such as clothing and jewellery, as was usual in these circumstances.
It turned out that the Air Raid Wardens Service did not know how many had sought shelter in the basement.
SHELTER: Floor of Ye Mecca cafe in the basement, where the victims were sheltering, excavated in 2016. Picture credit: Humber Field Archaeology
The Admiralty seem to have been actively unhelpful or strangely evasive. At different times the Rescue Service Leader was told at different times that there had been eight, five and then one of their staff on duty in the building that night, but no WRNS or civilian staff.
The landlord of The Punch Hotel said that six of his guests who were likely to have sheltered in the Prudential were missing. The caretaker of the building and his family were also unaccounted for.
Remarkably, it was learned that one person had escaped from the building. This was Arthur Maslin, a staff member at accountants Smailes Holtby & Gray (now Smailes Goldie), which had offices in the building, and also an Air Raid Warden, who had been fire-watching in the offices that night. He scrambled out of the blazing building but one of his colleagues was missing.
The City Engineer concluded that 16 people had been killed in the destruction of the Prudential building.
By comparing his report with the Roll of Civilian War Dead, together with the Hull Corporation Civilian War Dead Index Cards at the History Centre, it is possible to produce the following provisional list of 16 named casualties.
Agnes Rita Boase, 33, of 10-12 Waterworks Street, wife of William Henry Boase.
Elizabeth Maureen Boase, 4, of 10-12 Waterworks Street, daughter of William and Agnes Boase.
William Henry Boase, 35, manager of Quartons florists, 10-12 Waterworks Street, husband of Agnes Rita Boase.
Catherine Christina Bristow, 19, of St Mary’s Avenue, Bricknell Avenue, wife of Vincent Bristow, guest at the Punch Hotel.
Vincent Bristow, 26, of St Mary’s Avenue, Bricknell Avenue, husband of Catherine Bristow, guest at the Punch Hotel.
Harold Desmond Hildred, 17, of 1 East Grove, Gipsyville, Fire-watcher, presumably Arthur Maslin’s work colleague, son of Walter and Hettie Hildred.
Mary Yvonne Maguire, 15, of Prudential Buildings, daughter of Thomas and Tilly Maguire.
Matilda Isobel (Tilly) Maguire, 43, of Prudential Buildings, wife of Thomas Maguire.
Therese Madeline Maguire, 12, of Prudential Buildings, daughter of Thomas and Tilly Maguire.
Thomas Ernest Maguire, 45, of Prudential Buildings, where he was caretaker, husband of Tilly Maguire.
Frederick John Stanley Rees, 45, of 103 Willerby Road, Admiralty Ship Overseer.
Dorothy Hayton Tennison, 29, manageress of Quartons florists, 10-12 Waterworks Street, wife of Cpl JP Tennison, Royal Army Medical Corps.
Barbara Jane Wallis, 11, of Punch Hotel, daughter of Frederick and Catherine Wallis.
Catherine Wallis, 48, of Punch Hotel, wife of Frederick Wallis.
Frederick Wallis, 54, of Punch Hotel, husband of Catherine Wallis.
Frederick Henry Wallis, 15, of Punch Hotel, son of Frederick and Catherine Wallis.
MEMORIAL: The plaque marking the site of the Prudential tower
We know from the testimony of a surviving relative of the Wallis family that Catherine Bristow was the daughter of Frederick and Catherine Wallis, and that she was pregnant.
Other bombing incidents had higher casualty rates – at least 60 people were killed when the communal shelter in Ellis Terrace, Holderness Road was hit on April 16, 1941 – but the Prudential incident has a special resonance with the people of Hull.
A film exists of the VE Day parade in Queen Victoria Square. Conspicuous by its absence is the Prudential building.
The crowds are cheering but what emotions they were experiencing must have been more than joy and relief that the war was over.
Many friends and relatives had died in combat or were still overseas fighting in the Far East. And here in Hull, many others had been killed or injured, whole families, like the Wallises, Boases and Maguires wiped out.
When we view VE Day through a haze of modern plastic red-white-and-blue bunting, we should not forget the very real tragedies which our city experienced.