The Blitz

The Coward children in 1935

Shortly after taking the photograph (above) in 1935, my grandfather John Coward (1902-1962), left his wife Ada (née Harris). John had been spending a lot of time away and now their relationship had come to an end. Because of this, Ada had to cancel her plans to buy a house in Beacontree, Essex and instead she moved into an upstairs flat in Plevna Crescent, Tottenham, North London with her five children. (Ada received her Decree Absolute on the 2nd December 1947). 

In the front of the photograph (above), from left to right, is my mother Joyce, aged four. Sitting in a cut-down highchair is Albert (Eddie), ten months old. Alongside him is Kenneth, aged seven. Standing behind my mother is John the eldest, aged twelve years. Next to John is Dorothy aged ten and Reg who was eight.



Descendants of Ada Harris

Dorothy (1925-1972) had suffered with bouts of rheumatic fever, which left her with serious heart problems. Ada tried in vain to find accommodation that was not too damp, but Tottenham in the London borough of Haringey was said to be built on water. This was probably due to the high water table and the flooding and waterlogging of the River Lea. So residents found most of the houses were very damp.

Ada Harris (1903-1999)

Times were very hard for my grandmother. My mother remembers Ada taking her wedding ring to a pawnbroker, known as Uncle in West Green, London. 

The family never had a holiday at the seaside. But while the children were young, Ada often walked them to Tower Bridge and let them play by the River Thames. And like many London boys, my uncles John, Ken and Reg also enjoyed playing football on Hackney Marshes, three miles away. Reg was always captain of their team.



Playing in the Thames near Tower Bridge

In 1938 John Coward returned to Ada's front door in Tiverton Road. He was wearing an old raincoat and had recently visited his mother, Harriet Coward (née Elsden). Ada now had a legal separation, so he was forbidden to step over the doorstep. 

When Joyce answered the front door she asked him, "Are you my dad?"
 "Yes I am Dorothy," he replied. He then drew out a handkerchief and wiped away a tear. Reg refused to talk to him, but John did give Joyce 6d and Eddie 3d.



St. Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz

Life was about to get even harder for Ada and her children. In September 1939 the British Government declared war on Germany. The following year London and its citizens were in the front line - at times under day and night attack by the German Luftwaffe. From 7th September 1941 for 76 consecutive nights London was pounded mercilessly. 40,000 civilians were killed and one million houses were destroyed.



Tottenham Lane, Haringey in 1945

When war broke out, my grandmother and her six children were living at 117 Tiverton Road, Haringey. Later, the family moved to 20 Vale Road near Alexandra Park. From Vale Road they then moved the half a mile to 1 Netherton Road where they stayed for about a year. Then the family packed up again and went to live further down the road at number 25 Netherton Road where they stayed till after the war.



Tiverton Road, Vale Road and Netherton Road, Haringey, London

Bombs dropped on Haringey during WWII

It is hard today, to imagine what it was like to live through all that bombing. From the 7th October 1940 till 6th June 1941 approximately 482 high explosive bombs and 4 Parachute Mines landed on Haringey.

Because of the Blitz, the government brought in Operation Pied Piper, which officially re-located (evacuated) both children and adults away to areas that they thought were less at risk. It was the single greatest movement of population in history. At the age of eight, my mother was evacuated along with her sister Dorothy (Dolly) away from London to Peterborough. They travelled by coach to stay with Mr and Mrs Eric Collier, who owned a garage in Wansford (their house was also called The Garage).

On their journey they took with them a tin of cornedbeef, a bar of chocolate, a gas mask and a large label on their coat with their name and school. Joyce was put in a church school and happened to be the only girl amongst 28 boys! She rememberd regularly being pinched on the backside by one particular boy who sat next to her and always seemed to have a runny nose!

The two girls came back to London eight weeks later, because Dolly wanted to find work. But the bombings had got worse in London and they were evacuated once again. This time, along with their brothers Reg and Ken, to Farset in Peterborough. The two boys stayed with an elderly couple called Mr and Mrs Osborne. Joyce and Dolly were sent further up the road to live with a Mr and Mrs Gilbert (daughter of the Osborne's) and their three children, Bobby, Betty and Gillian.

Children being evacuated from London

After about six weeks the two girls were homesick and feeling fed-up. Dorothy was expected to do a lot of housework and they both were very unhappy. So although London was facing terrible bombing the girls once again returned home. But Reg and Ken stayed with Mr and Mrs Osborne - even though before school they both had to saw-up railway sleepers and at weekends work in the brickyards!

John Coward (1923-2002) and Reg Coward (b.1926)

During the Blitz, my mother's eldest brother John, lived for a while with Granny Coward (Harriet Diana Coward 1863-1947). He then joined the Royal Navy.

Ada was evacuated too. She was sent to Oxford, with her youngest child Eddie and put in an attic with such a low ceiling she couldn't even sit up in bed. These conditions, combined with being sick with worry about the rest of her children, led to her returning to London the following day.

Joyce Coward aged four

While my mother was at school, my grandmother worked for a Jewish woman called Mrs Recognitzer, whose family had been shot by the Nazis. She called her, 'my Ada' and my gran knew her as 'Mrs Rex'. 

During the time Joyce stayed in London, she often went by train with her mother and brother Eddie (b.1934) to visit her grandfather, James Harris (1879-1864) at Chadwell Heath. Usually on the return home there was a black-out, so they had to walk the five miles back from Liverpool Street Station to their home in Netherton Road! 

These continual bombing raids took their toll on my mother. She had a terrible experience in December 1941. It was a Sunday, Ada had taken her three children, Ken, Eddie and Joyce to the cinema. After watching the movie they returned to Netherton Road in Tottenham for tea. At about 6pm while Ada was frying their meal a 'Landmine' dropped a short distance away.

Out of the array of terrifying German bombs dropped on London, the Land or Parachute mines were one of the most sinister. These huge steel canisters containing 2,400lb of high explosive landed silently via a large parachute after the planes were gone. They did not explode on impact. It had a clockwork mechanism detonated after 25 seconds causing a  huge blast that not only destroyed hundreds of homes, but were deliberately designed to kill or maim unsuspecting fire and rescue workers.

My mother described a horrific crash! The ceiling collapsed and the windows were sucked firstly inwards, then outwards and smashed into smithereens. The children dived into the Morrison shelter.

Morrison Shelter

     

Morrison Shelters were a way of protecting people in their own homes from falling bombs. This was an alternative to the Anderson Shelter in the garden (Ada's shelter was filled with water) and the public shelters. This type of protection was named after the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison. They were made of very heavy steel (almost like a cage) and could be put in the living room and used as a table. Underneath were springs for a mattress. One wire side lifted up for people to crawl underneath and get inside.

Everything in the house was covered in soot and rubble. The bomb had been dropped on Tiverton Road, just around the corner. The houses either side of Ada's were badly damaged, three rows of houses nearby were destroyed and two more were badly blasted. Whole families were killed. That night Ada and her children slept down the tube station and until their house was repaired.

Stamford Hill School had been preparing for a nativity play for Christmas. In school assembly the next day, the headmistress read out a list of children that had been tragically killed. Joyce recalled that one of the dead girls was due to play the part of the Virgin Mary.

My mother has many memories of those dark days. She described to me how her brother Ken dug out a man, buried up to his neck in rubble, with his bare hands. Also how a wood yard was bombed, and how as she walked to school sewage poured down the streets.  But probably her most terrifying experience, was being machine-gunned by a German fighter plane when out shopping in West Green with her sister and mother. The plane dive-bombed and machine-gunned once, then circled and did it again. They ran for shelter into an open doorway. After the plane had gone they apologised to the home-owner who told them not to worry as she always left the door open for that reason.

These terrifying incidents would leave a lasting impression on my mother.

After the D-Day landings in June 1944 London faced the 'Second Blitz' from the Germans. These were the V-1 flying bombs or, as many called them, doodlebugs. They were basically unmanned missiles that were fired from along the Dutch and French coasts.  Hitler boasted that these weapons would win the war for the Nazis. Up until October 1944 approximately 10,000 were fired at England; 2,419 reached London, killing about 6,184 people and injuring 17,981. 

The V2 Missile

After enduring the V1s, London and the South East then had to face the V2s, the worlds first ballistic missiles and the first man-made objects to make a sub-orbital spaceflight. Carrying a ton of explosives and travelling at 2,386 mph, these weapons killed 9000 Londoners between autumn 1944 and spring 1945. The Tottenham area was hit by four V1s and three V2s.

Unlike many families, my grandmother and her children thankfully survived WWII.