Finally coming back to this ... and found the issue :-)
DBGWebPage *NewPage = new DBGWebPage(webGUI);The new Page was not a child of the correct object.
I checked pointers as suggested.
The connect of the JS bridge showed no issues.
However, the first call from JS (signal javaScriptWindowObjectCleared() calling my populateJavaScriptWindowObject())
crashed on
obviously because it was pointing to 'nothing' instead of a QWebView.
Thank you guys for all the hints.