Tribute to Rugby boy whose tragic death in 1947 resonated across the town

Malcolm and his wife Sharon with the tribute and, inset, Geoffrey.

A poignant tribute to a boy who drowned more than 70 years ago has been placed at the cemetery on Newton Manor Lane.

On a Thursday in July, 1947 Rugby police launched a frantic search for four-year-old Geoffrey Howard Mayo, who had last been seen playing near his home the previous afternoon.

Little Geoffrey, of Wood Street, was described as a well-built boy with blue eyes and a fresh complexion.

Police and residents worked together to search the area – but to no avail. Officers began to fear the worse – prompting them to drag sections of the River Avon and the Oxford Canal.

Geoffrey was still missing and, with the conventional methods failing, police took the extraordinary decision to summon the help of PC Terry – a diviner from Sutton Coldfield.

In an account dating back to the time of the tragedy, the Advertiser reported that PC Terry boarded a canoe and passed down Brownsover canal, using hazel twigs to discover Geoffrey’s body.

An inquest was later held to establish the circumstances of the tragedy.

There it was revealed that another boy, a seven-year-old, had been with Geoffrey at the time.

The boy told the coroner that the two had been looking for tiddlers along the canal when Geoffrey fell in.

He had fallen in too far to be helped, he said. Walking up the canal the boy discovered a fisherman and the two had a chat about fishing.

He did not tell the fisherman what had happened and when the coroner asked why, he said he had been too frightened.

In the late sixties Malcolm Mayo, then aged 10, was taking part in a charity walk with his father in the Clifton area.

When they passed the cemetery off Newton Manor Lane his father said: “Your brother is buried there.”

Malcolm explained that his father had remarried after the tragedy and, as was all too common at the time, never spoke of the loss of Geoffrey.

Years later, prompted by the discovery of an old Advertiser clipping in his deceased father’s house, Malcolm undertook a tireless search to learn more .

A stone shortage after the war meant Geoffrey’s grave went unmarked, but earlier this week Malcolm travelled from his home in Scotland to lay a tribute on the site. It is a lump of aged Scottish hard stone with a plaque to commemorate Geoffrey’s memory.

Malcolm said he would like to thank Linda Palmer from the cemetery group, Lorraine Marley from Rainsbrook Crematorium and Jospeh Moseley from Rugby Library for their help with his search.

Malcolm would greatly appreciate anyone who knows more about the incident to get in touch via this newspaper.