On a bitter November day, Arthur and Maggie arrived back in Gateshead on what should have been Norman's fourth birthday. They went to stay with Maggie's parents having no money, nowhere to live and no child to brighten their days. On the journey home they had instinctively looked for Norman, expecting to see him come running. Habitually they would turn to see what he was up to; look up in response to another child's cry, or reach down for his hand that was no longer held out to them. Then remembrance and grief would sweep over them. Over the following months they wished over and over again that they had left Burma at the same time as Stanley Hunter. Had they done so their son would still be alive. But Holmes had taken his role as manager very seriously and had tried hard to obtain the wages owed to Yomah Oil's employees. He had hung on as long as he could. Too long. Now they both bottled up their grief; Arthur in particular was unable to speak to anyone of Norman's death, not even his oldest friend Bob Lawson.

By the time he had left Burma Holmes himself was owed nearly a whole year's salary, which he tried to salvage through solicitors in London, but LCT, by then on the verge of bankruptcy, had gone into hiding.