South Yorkshire Times, November 10th, 1951
Shot In Berlin Mishap
Mexboro’ Man Stationed In Vast Hitler Stadium
Shot in a barrack room accident in the vast Olympic Stadium, built in Berlin by Hitler, a 26-years-old Mexborough solider, Signalman Ronald Hague, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Hague, 93, Windhill Crescent, died in hospital from his wounds on Sunday. An official inquiry is pending.
First news of the tragedy did not arrive until Monday afternoon. A telegram from Army Records Office at Reading said: “Deeply regret to inform you…that your son… died November 4th. The Army Command desire to offer you their profound sympathy.”
Hague was given a military funeral in Berlin on Wednesday.
Family in Berlin
Hague’s wife and three children Marlene (6), Kenneth (4), and Janet (2), had arrived in Berlin only a few days earlier. Letters to Mr. and Mrs. E. Pearsall of Balby Street, Denaby told how pleased she was to get a home at last. Mrs. A. Hague, the dead soldier’s mother, received a letter from him on Thursday, the day of the accident. Much of it contained an enthusiastic description of the furnished flat they had secured: “You want to see it” he wrote, “it’s a smasher.” The children were settled he said and “loved it.” His sister received another letter on Saturday in similar enthusiastic vein.
Ronald Hague, after leaving Garden Street School, Mexborough, worked at Kilnhurst and Barnburgh collieries. He saw service abroad in the Medical Corps during his national service in 1946. When he was discharged, housing troubles began.
Mrs. Pearsall said on Tuesday “He joined up to get his wife somewhere to live. They had been knocking up and down Mexborough in lodgings until he had got fed up. They were in only one room once.”
Hague got a job in Lincolnshire on a farm but that did not ease the situation, so in August 1950 he joined the R.A.S.C. for 12 years. Six months ago, he was sent to Germany, and his wife and children left Mexborough to join him a fortnight ago,
“A Great Shock”
“Ivy was very pleased about following him out.” Mrs. Pearsall said. “We had had letters from her saying how comfortable she was, and telling what they had done for her in Berlin. It has all been a great shock. He was home on leave only a month ago.” She said her daughter’s difficulties would be starting all over again. “She will not be able to stay there now,” she said. “I am going to see if I can get her a house in Mexborough – she has had her name on the list for years.”
Mrs. Pearsall received a letter from her daughter yesterday, which had been written on Monday, the day following Hague’s death. Mrs. Hague wrote that she had been taken great care of since the tragedy, that she and her youngest child, Janet, had been staying with the Commanding Officer and his wife
Arrangements are being made for Mrs. Hague to return from Germany with her children on Saturday and she will be met in Doncaster by her mother on Tuesday. Mrs. Hague did not say in her letter how the accident had occurred, except that the bullet had entered her husband’s chest.
Mr. and Mrs. Hague, in Mexborough, received written confirmation of their son’s death yesterday from the Reading Records Office.
Footnote:
This one was quite poignant for me as I lived in Berlin (my then husband was in the RAF) from 1975 to 1978. I know the Olympic Stadium well and worked in the nearby Forces Medical Centre. If you haven’t been to Berlin, I recommend it – although it has changed considerably since then!
Susan Denton