Skegness Magazine

May 1941

800 Miles to Kill 8-year-old Boy

HITLER’S LATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COASTAL AREA

LONE RAIDER’S ATTACK MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF PARENTS AND BABY SISTER

ONLY ONE OTHER CASUALTY
A German bomber, with its crew of five, came all the way from Germany, across the North Sea, to kill a cheery little 8-year-old boy, in a Lincolnshire coastal area, in the early hours of Saturday morning last.
Eight bombs were dropped on private dwelling-houses, of which one was demolished, and three others damaged to an extent which makes them unsafe for habitation.
The father and mother of the little boy, his sister and a service lodger, were all in bed in the house at the same time, and had miraculous escapes.
PROMPT ACTION SAVES LIFE
The little boy, Barry Evans, was born in Australia. Fire broke out immediately after the explosion, but prompt action by Service trainees and the Night Rescue Squad quickly exterminated the flames, and spared the four other trapped occupants from an agonizing death.
Two street gas mains blazed fiercely for some time,  but Gas Department employees and the Fire Services soon had them under control, and prevented them from spreading.

TRAPPED UNDER DEBRIS
The bomb blew the main walls of the house outwards and the roof, furniture, and first floor bedrooms crashed to ground level. Mr. A. E. Evans, a District Coal Manager and Special Constable who had been on duty up to Midnight, his wife, little daughter Joyce, eight-year-old Barry, and a service lodger, were all trapped under the debris.
Air Raid Wardens and Service trainees worked feverishly to get at them, and apart from the little boy, had extricated them all within half-an-hour. Mrs. Evans and the little girl were almost overcome by the fumes, smoke and shock, but quickly recovered from their terrifying ordeal on being conveyed to their next-door neighbour’s house, Mrs. Spooner. Remarkble to relate, not one pane of glass in this house was broken.
The occupants of the house on the other side Mr. and Mrs. T. Waite, and their, sons Jack and Norman, had an extraordinary escape. It was Norman who discovered the charred body of little Barry, one of whose limbs he saw hanging from part of the demolished building.
Mr. Waite’s cycle, which was reared up at the side of his house, was twisted all shapes by the falling walls. Singularly enough, the front windows of this adjoining house were undamaged, though others at the rear were blown in.

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Due to wartime restrictions, the press were banned from publishing the exact location of enemy attack.but we can be sure the “Lincolnshire coastal area” refered to in the story is Skegness.

Barry Evans, son of Albert Edward and Constance Evans, died at 13 Saxby Avenue, Skegness.

Barry Evans was buried in St Clement’s Churchyard, Skegness, and his grave was located by Julie Hawkesford who kindly sent the following photograph:

Barry Evans is remembered as a civilian death on the War Memorial, St Matthew’s Church, Skegness:

Commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission