blitzbaby

Although people remember the Coventry Blitz which took place over the nights of 14 and 15 November, 1940, the city had been attacked several times prior to that. It was during one of these earlier attacks in October that I was born.

My mother had received the news six days prior to my birth that my father, who served with the Ox. and Bucks. Light Infantry had been killed, I believe in the grounds of The Chingford High School for Girls . He had been defusing a large bomb. While his body awaited burial, he had a military funeral, my mother's house was bombed and the whole of the front of the building collapsed. The windows and doors were blown out but the coffin, with the funeral wreaths and flowers on it, was not touched. My mother, understandably decided that she had had enough of Coventry and began to make plans to move to Scotland, the place of her birth and where she still had sisters living.

I was still a baby, my sisters were 6 years old and 15. My brother was in the navy and we moved to the Clydeside. It was only a few months later that the Clydeside docks became a target for huge bombing raids. It was then that my mother decided Hitler obviously had it in for her and that we should move to somewhere where there was little or no industry.We moved back to England and went to live in Kenilworth.