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Memories of The Second World War 1939 — 1945 in Coventry

As I was not born until 1942, most of these memories were told to me by my mother, grandmother or the rest of the family.

Sunday 3rd September 1939 - At 11.15 am, Neville Chamberlain announced on the wireless (radio) that Briton was at war with Germany. My parents and my brother, who was 14 months old, were living in Stoke, Coventry, where I would be born three years later. It was a warm, sunny, Sunday and Mum was in the back garden talking to the next door neighbour. When they heard the news they both cried and hugged each other.

For the first six months nothing happened and this period was called the ‘Phoney War’.

My Dad and Granpa joined the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard. They did not enlist because Dad was a toolmaker and thereby in a reserved occupation and Granpa was too old to serve (50 yrs old)
The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard duties were carried out in the evening after a full days work and at weekends. Dad and Granpa were often on fire watch duty in Ribble Rd where the family were living at the time. They had to put out the many incendiaries which landed on the railway bank nearby, with water from a hose pipe.

All the women had to find paid employment and many children were evacuated to the country but Mum was excused work because she had a young child and David was not evacuated because he was too young.

Towards the end of the war, Gran worked in the British Restaurant situated on Gosford Green, Stoke, Coventry. British Restaurants were started during the war and served cheap, subsidised meals for the public. I remember visiting Gran whilst she was working there. She was wearing a white overall and standing behind a long, trestle table. She was spreading a huge mountain of white bread with margarine (butter was rationed to about 2oz per person per week). We used to order bread, jam and a pot of tea. She used to be reprimanded for putting too much margarine on the bread. At home, Gran hated the taste of margarine so much that she used to mix it with the 2oz of butter to make it more palatable. She always scraped the butter/margarine paper afterwards to avoid any waste.

Rabbit was eaten before and during the war and I remember seeing skinned rabbits hanging up in the butcher’s shop. Gran heard a rumour that cats were killed as well as rabbit when meat was scarce so she would never eat rabbit during the war. A rabbit and cat look much the same when skinned.

At Christmas, most people ate chicken, goose or duck. Chicken was a very special and expensive meal before the days of factory farming. When it was carved, the children were allowed to pull the wish bone (breastbone). Whoever got the largest part of the bone got the wish.
One Christmas, shortly after the war, the family weren’t sure if they would manage to get a bird, so three members of the family went out separately to see what they could buy.
They were all successful and we had three birds to eat that Christmas. The birds arrived complete with feathers and had to be plucked. I can remember Gran sitting in the kitchen, knee deep in these feathers which she stuffed into an old pillow case.

During and after an air raid, the first utility to disappear was usually water which was switched off for quite a long time. Gran got into the habit of filling the kettle with water before going to bed. That way she was ensured of a nice cup of tea in the morning whatever had happened the night before. Right up until her death in 1968, she always filled the kettle before going to bed.

Coventry was severely bombed for a long time during the war (the Blitz). Mum, Dad, Gran, Granpa and my brother(I was not yet born) used to drive out of the town at night to escape the heavy bombing.My brother was put in a makeshift hammock which was suspended from the interior ceiling of the car. Petrol was rationed but Dad somehow managed to get some. There was always a ‘blackout’ at night and the streets were completely dark. No lights were allowed outside that could guide enemy bombers. The street lights were turned off and there had to be thick curtains, lined with blackout material at the windows so that no chink of light would show (when I started piano lessons in 1952, my music teacher, Mrs Moss, still had curtains lined with blackout material at her windows). Driving was quite hazardous because the car headlights were reduced to tiny slits and the signposts were all taken down, in case of an invasion.
Sometimes the family drove to Combe Abbey near Brinklow and parked the car in the long drive. They looked back at Coventry burning and all aglow and saw dogs and cats running out of the town.
Most of the time, they drove to the village of Flecknoe, near Rugby and stayed in the village hall. Great grandmother Sarah Jane Andrews, lived in the village at Lynmouth Cottage. My brother had no fear of the cows that were in the fields and used to scare Mum by walking under the cow’s stomachs.

One of the worst bombing raids on Coventry occurred on the night of 14th November 1940 when the cathedral was destroyed. However, Mum said that people were equally upset that a new store just completed called ‘Owen and Owen’ (now Alders) had also been destroyed. The Rex cinema in nearby Corporation St was also bombed. The film showing there was ’Gone with the Wind’!!!

Sometimes the family stayed in the local shelters during a raid but sometimes they took a chance and stayed at home. The safest place to shelter in a house was under the stairs or under a table.

1940 - My grandparents had a bomb land in their front garden where they were living in Ribble Rd, Stoke, Coventry. When they returned from the shelter (in Folley Lane school playground) after the air raid, the front door knob was red hot. My brother, who was a toddler at the time, used the crater like a sandpit and took his bucket and spade to dig in his bomb hole. After the war, I remember seeing an old bomb, complete with fins, propped up against a wall in someone’s garden. I was fascinated to see it as we walked by, but Mum had a look of absolute horror on her face. If sirens or the ‘all clear’ were sounded on some other occasion after the war, Mum used to have that same look on her face.

Gas masks These were issued as a precaution. If a gas attack happened, Mum said that she had three minutes to put my brother's mask on, put me in baby gas cylinder/cradle which had to be pumped by hand to supply me with oxygen and then put her own mask on. Luckily, no gas attacks ever happened.

1943 One morning, Mum was walking in the centre of Coventry with me in the pram and my brother now 4 years old. There had been an air raid the night before and an enemy aeroplane appeared in the sky overhead. (the Germans often came back the next day to take photographs of the damage caused). Not knowing what the plane was going to do, my Mum sheltered us all in a shop doorway. A gentleman walking by, came into the doorway and leant over my pram to protect me. When the plane had disappeared from the sky, he went on his way. Mum did not know the man’s name or anything about him .She said that people were very unselfish during this time.

Rationing - During the war, food rationing was introduced to make sure that everyone received their fair share of the limited food which was available. Clothes, household goods and furniture were also rationed. Food rationing started in 1940 and finally ended in 1954. Everyone in the family was issued with a ration book containing a certain amount of coupons for each type of food. Housewives usually kept to the same local shop and the shop owner would tell them if anything special was about to be delivered. Mum said that whenever you saw a queue at the shop, you joined it automatically — once she queued and managed to buy some bananas!

Most people kept a few chickens in the back garden in order to get fresh eggs. These could be fed on household scraps of food such as vegetable peelings. Whilst living in Camden St, I can remember a huge saucepan of such scraps boiling away on the stove.
It looked and smelt foul.

Sweet rationing - started in 1942 and ended in 1954.Everyone was allowed 3oz of sweets per week.My brother and I always had our parent’s share of sweet coupons which meant that we could have twice as many. It worked out that we could have sweets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. .

V E Street Party (Victory in Europe) 1945
Street parties were held in every town and village to celebrate the end of the war. Ours was held in Camden St, Stoke, Coventry where my Grandparents were living at the time. I can remember long tables full of food down the centre of the street. Tins of fruit, which had been impossible to buy during the war, miraculously appeared - housewives must have saved these over the years to use on a special occasion. All the children were in fancy dress.My brother, now seven years old, was dressed as a china man. He wore a pale blue embroidered silk dressing gown with a lampshade on his head. He had a long, thin, black shoelace stuck on his top lip for a moustache. Much as the family tried to persuade me, I would not dress up and just wore my best dress. I was now three years old.

My Granpa was an excellent pianist and, in the days before instant music was easily available, he was always asked to play at family parties and functions. He was reluctantly to have his prized piano wheeled out on the street for the VE party so another one was provided for him to play.

VJ Street party (Victory in Japan)
VJ parties were held a few months after the VE parties when Japan finally surrendered.
Ours took place in the church hall in Longfellow Rd, near to Wordsworth Rd, Stoke, Coventry, where we were living at the time.

After 1945

Food rationing continued for several years after the war, so much of my memories of this time, are still about food. In 1947 (age five years) whilst living in Bolingbrook Rd, Stoke, Coventry, the lady next door had a baby which meant that she was allowed orange juice from the baby clinic. They already had a daughter about my age whom I use to play with, and one day, she let me have a sip of this wonderful orange juice. It was in a medicine type bottle with a narrow neck. It was very sweet, syrupy and delicious. I secretly hoped that Mum would have another baby so that we too could have some of this wonderful juice.
In 1947, my Gran and Granpa were living in Camden St, Stoke, Coventry and I often went to visit them. One day, my Gran said that she had a special treat for me. She asked me to sit down on the carpet and she disappeared into the kitchen. She returned with a fresh peach which she was delighted to give to me, telling me how wonderful and special it was. I started to eat it whilst she busied around the house and found that I didn’t really like it. I managed to force it down so as not to upset her and hurt her feelings

Bombed buildings — Playing on the bomb sites was very interesting for me as a child. One site, which I played on, was situated between Ball Hill and Camden St. The weeds, called rose bay willow herbs (although I didn’t know what they were called at the time) were as tall as I was. They grew thickly all over the rubble. You suddenly came across a doorstep with pretty tiles. I didn’t think then, how sad that someone’s home had been razed to the ground. Bombed buildings were just words to me and I didn’t realise their literal meaning. If a house had been bombed at the end of a terrace, on the side wall you could see the floor layers and fireplaces half way up the wall.

Footnote
Most people of my age are surprise to learn that rationing did not finally end until 1954.I think we were so used to all the shortages, that we didn’t realise what we were missing.

I would like to have had some old ration books amongst my memorabilia, but by the time rationing eventually finished, Mum was so heartily sick of ration books and coping with all the shortages, that she threw them all away.

Although the ‘Ward’ family was quite large and Coventry was a very dangerous place to live, no family member was killed there during the war. The only fatality was my Dad’s youngest brother, Albert Edward (Paddy) Ward, who was killed on active service in Malta on Christmas Eve,1941, aged 21 years.

Sayings from the war years

‘Why worry, use Sunlight soap’

‘Worse things happen at sea - you get wet as well’

‘Could be worse - could be me’

‘Don’t use the third light on a match’ (to light a cigarette) - First light, you are seen -second light they take aim - third light they fire.

‘This won’t buy a baby a new bonnet’ - sitting too long after a cup of tea and not getting on with the housework.

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