A boy aged 8 used his school tie to hang himself after his mother and his grandfather both died within the past 12 months.

Joshua Aldred was found unconscious by his grandmother in his bedroom at home in Lytham St Annes yesterday. He was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital but attempts to resuscitate him failed.

Joshua was dealing with the double tragedy of losing his mother, Sarah, to breast cancer three months ago and his grandfather, John, to prostate cancer in July last year.

His father, Jason Aldred, paid tribute to his “beautiful” son and said that he felt it had been a cry for attention rather than a suicide attempt.

Mr Aldred said: “Outwardly this loving and happy child, who had a great network of family and friends to support him, coped admirably. He missed his mother and spoke of her often. Our very close relationship was of immense support to both of us. A tragic accident at home occurred when Joshua’s sadness at the loss he had experienced at such a young age has resulted in this tragedy.

“The family are sure he expected only to injure himself slightly and are devastated that this cry for attention resulted in the loss of such a beautiful boy.

“Joshua’s school life was happy and they have been monitoring him closely after the death of his mother. He was playing happily with no change in his school work.”

Joshua attended the independent King Edward VII and Queen Mary School in Lytham St Annes.

A statement posted on the school website said: “We are shocked and saddened by news of the death of Joshua Aldred. He was a delightful eight-year-old who will be very sadly missed by everyone.

“We are talking to the children and their parents in the preparatory school and are providing support to them.”

A school spokesman said that Joshua loved music and sport. He said that students’ reactions to his death ranged from “tearful to thoughtful”.

Lancashire Police were keen to halt rumours that Joshua had been the victim of bullying.

“This is not the case,” said one of the officers compiling a report on the boy’s death for the coroner.

“It would appear that the boy has taken the deaths in his family very much to heart and that what happened to his mother and grand-dad was dwelling on him.”

A postmortem examination that was carried out yesterday showed that Joshua’s death was consistent with hanging.

According to NHS figures released last year, more than 4,000 children under the age of 14 attempted to take their own lives in 2006. A total of 69 attempted to hang or suffocate themselves and two tried to take their lives by drowning.

Thirteen children leapt from a great height, while four lay or jumped in front of a moving vehicle. One child deliberately crashed a car. The figures were contained in a report by the Information Centre for Health and Social Care, a body that was set up by the Government to analyse the details behind nearly a million admissions of both adults and children to accident and emergency departments each year.

A free and confidential helpline for children needing to talk to someone about personal problems is run by Childline on 0800 1111.

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