EXCLUSIVE by Rebecca Hannant
The mystery of a missing Withernsea boy continues to baffle the town nearly 80 years on.
On Tuesday, April 30, 1946, three-year-old Peter Greenwood was walking home to Princes Avenue after watching a film at the Cosy Cinema in Queen Street with his brother Bill, nine, and sister Shirley, five. As they made their way playing follow-the-leader, Bill turned around – and Peter was gone.
Bill ran back to the cinema and checked every corner, while Shirley hurried home to tell their mother, Marian Greenwood. A search was launched immediately, with police, coastguards and residents scouring the streets and seafront. Members of the Drewery family joined the search alongside Police Constable Sam Medcalf – but Peter was never found.
On Thursday, May 3, 1946, the Gazette, along with one national newspaper, reported the disappearance.
In an article titled “Child’s Disappearance,” the piece in the Gazette read: “The sympathy of the whole town has gone out to Mr and Mrs Greenwood of Princes Avenue during the last few days in the loss of their three-year-old son Peter, who tragically disappeared on Tuesday afternoon.
“At the time of writing (Thursday) no further news has been heard of the little boy, and although his parents are naturally hoping against hope for his safety there are now grave fears for this.
“Practically every resident in town has been keeping a lookout for him, and the local police have been untiring in their efforts, organising search parties, and going out themselves, especially during Tuesday night.
“The coastguard has also been keeping watch, and indeed everything possible has been done to help. These days of waiting for news are probably the hardest to bear and are shared by us all, for the tranquillity of the whole community has been shaken by this unforeseen tragedy.”
In 2022, Bill, who has since died, wrote to the Gazette saying that the disappearance of his brother had led to his mother dying of a broken heart six months later. He also questioned why the event was not given more coverage at the time.
He wrote: “In May 1946 I lost my brother, Peter Greenwood, aged three. Peter went missing, he has never been found. The local police (Sam Medcalf), the Drewery brothers, the local coastguard were all involved looking for Peter – to no avail.
“The local press (Withernsea Gazette) and one ‘national’ newspaper took up the story and wrote a small article about Peter’s disappearance, that’s all the coverage it received. After Peter went missing, my mother died of a broken heart. I was nine at the time, my sister Shirley was five, so I know from personal experience how grief-stricken both families are.”
Within the letter Bill said that he had visited Withernsea many times following the disappearance and always made attempts to go over the ground as he had 56 years previously.
He added: “On one occasion, on my holiday to Withernsea, I visited the local police station to enquire about the statement I made when Peter went missing, only to be told all the statements were sent to York and were shredded!
“It was even suggested by the police that Peter may have wandered into the sea and have been washed away. The Drewery brothers said if he had been taken by the sea, his body would have been washed up by the next incoming tide. A search was made, but nobody was ever found. After all these years it is still a mystery as to what happened to Peter.”
Kizzie Elliott, Bill’s granddaughter and Peter’s great-niece, is now carrying on the search for information about her great-uncle. She posted a photo of Peter on the Withernsea Memories Facebook page but was surprised to learn that very few people remembered the incident.
Kizzie said: “My grandpa passed away a few years ago. I’ve been sorting through his papers and found all the documents about Peter’s case. He didn’t talk about it much – it was clearly painful for him – but he did share the story with me.
“My grandpa moved to Withernsea from Hull with his mother Marian Greenwood and his two siblings, Peter and Shirley, during the war. Peter was born in Withernsea during that time.
“Because my grandpa and Shirley were so young, Marian was evacuated with them, and they started a new life in Withernsea – it became their home. From my grandpa’s notes and conversations later in life, he didn’t believe Peter had gone into the water.
“He knew the tides well and believed that if Peter had entered the sea, the tide would have brought him back in. So that was ruled out quite early, though they were never sure what had happened. That’s essentially all the information we’ve ever had.”
“I’m quite surprised that very few people seem to recall it happening, even people born in the early 1940s. Quite a few people have commented, mostly saying they’d never heard of the story. People born shortly after the disappearance, who grew up not long after it happened, didn’t know about it either. Only one person recalled hearing, as a child, about a boy who had gone missing. Apart from that, there’s been a lot of sympathy, but no new information.”
Kizzie now hopes that she will be able to solve the mystery of Peter’s disappearance.