This page from the British Thomson-Houston Company works newspaper from November 1940 was kindly donated by J Gough. Transcribed by Jane Hewitt, Family Tree Researcher.
We feel sure that it is scarcely needful to point out to our readers that it is impossible for us to record here and now any details of the events of that memorable night of November 14th during the devastation of Coventry city by wave after wave of enemy air raiders.
The BTH fire brigade was able to send air to the fire services in the city centre, in the form of a trailer pump and crew. The ambulance section also rendered valuable aid to members of the public suing the BTH works shelters. The night shift workers, too, joined in and rendered help in every possible way, and not least among the test of nerves was that called for from the "spotters" who stuck to their exposed positions.
We deeply regret that a number of BTH works employees lost their lives at their homes or in shelters in various parts of the city during the raid. We have been so far notified of the following BTH employees who lost their lives:-
Mr. J. Eaves, who received fatal injuries during the air raid, was the only member of the various services on duty that night at the works to be killed. He had been one of a trailer pump crew which had been assisting the city fire service, and was on his way back to the works during the raid, to procure some further piece of equipment, when the bomb which caused his death fell nearby.
Mr. Eaves, who leaves a widow and two children, had been an employee of the firm for fourteen years, and was a cheerful and competent worker; he was very popular among his colleagues in the fire brigade, and fearless in carrying out his duty.
The British Thomson-Houston Company were represented at this funeral by a party of twelve firemen in charge of 3rd Officer Kendrick.
He was an A.R.P. warden, and was killed while on duty. He was assisting in the release of five people who had been trapped in a bombed house, four of whom had been taken out alive, while he remained behind to administer first aid to the fifth, who was a cripple, and it was while in this house that a land mine dropped in the garden, completing the destruction and causing the death of the two remaining people.
Mr. Phillips leaves a widow and two children. In a previous raid, on November 5th, his own house had been damaged, and during the raid on the 14th the damage was very considerably extended.
The following is a list of very gratifying successes in the ambulance and first aid examinations held in October by the St. John Ambulance Association. In the women’s section the number of passes was 100 per cent, and in the men’s section, 75 per cent.
Passed for Voucher. Miss J. Haskey.
Passed for Certificates:
H. W. Addleton, A. A. Cowle, W. T. Edwards, A. J. Lee, T. McKenna, N. A. Youett., R. T. Essex, W. Legon.
Probationers: J. W. Fairbrother and P. B. Young (Electrical Engineering).
Indentured: M. E. Johnson, D. H. Wallace, J. Folliard, J. T. M. Hawes, D. A. Hobbins (Electrical Engineering); B. J. Griffin (Tool Making).
Left: Apprentices C. L. Chappell and J. M. Oliver have left at their own request.
For useful suggestions, awards have been made to J. G. Busst, K. Carter, D. A. Chapman, R. Hignett, and J. Mitchell.
An extremely popular children's classic story . Set in WW2, Carrie and her little brother are evacuated to Wales and billeted at the home of the bullying Mr Evans and his timid sister Lou.
Unhappy at home, they love visiting fellow evacuee, Albert, at the farm of Druid's Bottom. Here they meet Hepzibah Green, who knows magical stories, and Mister Johnny, who speaks a language all his own.
But then things go wrong and Carrie takes things into her own hands - without guessing the awful consequences.