Mum was the last civilian victim of a German raid... and she died saving me
Thomas, 74, tells of amazing war sacrifice
When the bombs began to land Maud jumped out of bed and grabbed her sons, making for the bedroom door to go downstairs.
But shrapnel flew through the window and hit her in the back.
Reports after the bombing said that if she had stayed in bed she might have survived – but that her babies may not have.
She was found trapped behind the bedroom door by Margaret, her 12-year-old daughter by a previous marriage.
Previously recounting the night of hell, Margaret said: “It was not a pretty sight. I could not get the bedroom door open.
“We lived with our grandparents and grandma was downstairs and grandad was in bed.
“I shouted for grandad to come, it was ages and ages before we could get any help because of the chaos.”
Maud was rushed through the streets to Sutton Base Hospital, where she died four days later.
Her husband Thomas was away in the Merchant Navy so the children were taken to a home.
Eventually Thomas junior was reunited with his father, who later remarried, and was brought up by his stepmother. Cradling a photo of Maud at his home Thomas, who still
lives in Hull, said: “I often wonder what would have happened if my mum had been here, how would my life have been different.”
Thomas only found out about his mum being the last victim after his eldest daughter, Paula Sykes, 51, started researching the family history in 2009.
He said: “My daughter and her husband started to look through archives which answered a lot of questions about my life. I found out about my mum when I was 11 to 12 years old – until then I thought that my stepmum was my real mum.
“My dad gave me a picture of her and my oldest brother and he said ‘That’s your real mum’ and walked away.
“I was annoyed at first because it felt like someone had just taken a chunk of my life away.
“I was told what she did by my sister Margaret. When I found out I was very emotional.
“I get ready around Mother’s Day. I regret never knowing her. We’ve got a file now that we keep in the house, any time we find anything new about her we add it in.
“Although I never knew her she was fantastic – she did what any mother would have done.
“They said if she’d stayed on the bed she would have probably survived but we may not. Now I’ve got pictures I can see what she looked like.”
Thomas said it had come as a shock to find out his twin had died at only four months of blood poisoning and gastroenteritis.
He said: “At the time they said he was the healthier one of us.
“It gets me thinking about how he would have been, whether we were identical or how many kids he would have had.”
The official record of the 1945 tragedy stated that a single bomber had been responsible for inflicting “the last civilian casualties of World War Two in Britain caused by piloted enemy aircraft”.
The death toll from the so-called “Last Raid” was recorded as nine male and three female victims – those who were killed on the night. Their names were inscribed on a memorial plaque erected on the site of the cinema.
Maud’s name was only added to it after historian Mike Covell uncovered how she was actually the 13th victim.
He had been writing a book on the raid and researching the death notices.
Thomas’s daughter Joanne Howard, 49, said: “When I found out I thought, ‘Wow what a fantastic thing my grandma did’.
“Because of her got a dad.
“It’s somebody we never knew but all wish we had. It has been a lovely way to spend Mother’s Day all together celebrating her life and remembering her.” THOMAS HOWARD ON MOTHER HE NEVER KNEW
I wonder often what she’d have been like if she had survived
I’ve