A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy killed in a tragic bus crash finally has a headstone at his grave for the first time in 47 years.

Lee Bugg was fatally injured by a school bus when he was playing in the street outside his home in Queen Elizabeth Way, Colchester, on June 6 1969.

His brother Paul, aged five and a half at the time, witnessed it.

The trauma has inevitably haunted the family for years but Paul, landlord of the Royal Mortar pub in Military Road, has just inherited the money needed for a permanent memorial to his brother and wanted to fulfil a promise he made to honour him.

Paul, 52, said: "Lee has always been there, everyday of my life I have thought about him.

"The inner peace to be able to see his name and not just a piece of grass. It is just fantastic to see it there.

"When it was done I was in bits but it was tears of joy."

Paul's step-grandfather George Smith recently died and left money to him.

Dad-of-five Paul said after Lee's death the family found it hard to talk about what happened.

He added: "There was no money, it was very tough times. They never had the money to put the headstone there.

"Mum went through a terrible time and dealt with it in her own way. I would always go over there [to the cemetery], it was just so traumatic."

The trauma had knock-on health effects for Paul as it initially caused blood vessels to burst at the back of his head and he was treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Paul said it was only after he met his wife Tanya was he able to open up about what happened.

Recalling the accident, Paul said: "The sounds and the sights were vivid. I can remember everything.

"In a sense it has brought out the best in me. Back then there was never that network of counselling."

The accident happened shortly after the children, including the brothers' sister, Paris, eight, had just walked home from school.

Their mum was washing up in the kitchen and the children were playing. Their dad Kenny was at work.

Paul said: "I saw him go under the bus and the bus went at a 45-degree angle.

"He had run across the road without looking, no one was to blame, it was a terrible thing."

Their parents later divorced.

Paul said his mum, now 73, was supportive of the headstone being installed at Colchester Cemetery.