Coventry Signals: WWII Stories from the Simmonds Family

My grandad was slightly unusual, in that during the Second World War he was a railway signalman, and therefore needed to work in the signal boxes in Coventry. In fact, he worked in this job most of his life, and eventually died 1969, aged just 63.

His name was Charles William Simmonds, known as Charlie to friends and acquaintances. He lived in the Broad Lane area of Coventry. He used to cycle to work, and frequently, on hearing the hum of enemy aircraft, had to throw himself and his bike into a ditch.

One day, on his way to work, there had been a raid.

A woman ran out of a house, shouting 'Help me! My house is on fire, my children are burning!' My grandad, as he was going to work, wasn't able to stop, and apologised quickly, before cycling on. The woman, not realising he was a signalman, hurled abuse at him.

He said to my mum, his daughter, Cynthia, that he'd never felt so bad that day.

My mum was baptised in 1935 in the original, old cathedral. She had many stories from the war. She remembered how there was a shelter under her stairs, and one across the street. One day, there was an air raid, and a woman ran with a baby to the shelter across the road. It was a neighbour, and it was a last-minute decision to go to the outside shelter. As she ran, a bomb exploded, bursting the child's eardrums, and killing it. The sad part is that the baby would have survived, if she'd stayed in her indoor shelter, under the stairs.

On a lighter note, mum often recalled the food shortages. She was served up an egg once for breakfast. She turned her nose up at it. It was there again at lunch, then dinner. The following morning my Nan Ivy put the egg in front of my mum again, and reluctantly my mum ate it.

All family members mentioned are no longer with us. My mum was the last to go in April 2022.