CWK205 (2009)

Hello there,

I wonder whether anyone might be able to help me with a query I have re Coventry Transport during the War - I'm working on the new series of the BBC family history series "Who Do You Think You Are?", and one of the ancestors that I am researching at the moment was a bus driver from Coventry.

The family believe that he was involved with driving buses in and out of the city at the time when Coventry was being very badly bombed, and his daughter (who is still alive) recalls a tense moment when he accidentally parked his bus over an unexploded bomb!

I noticed in one of the other posts on the forum a gentleman mentioned that he was in the process of restoring a bus that had had all the seats removed during the war, I think for the same purpose (bringing people out of the city to safety), and I was wondering whether anyone had any more information about exactly what went on with bus drivers at this time and how many of them might have been involved with this impromptu rescue service?

Obviously the best possible scenario would be for me to be able to uncover records somewhere that showed Harold to have been involved with the bus service at this time, and (even better) records to show that he had been part of this rescue effort - although I understand that these may be impossible to find!

More generally though, I would be really interested to hear if anyone had any more information about the activities of bus drivers in Coventry during the Second World War - anything to help build picture of Harold a bit so we learn as much about him as possible would be a fantastic help.

Many thanks in advance and hope to hear from some of you soon!

Hannah

That should make an interesting program.

You don't mention the driver's surname, Harold who?

Sorry - my mistake, his name was Harold Stevenson

hi hannah there is two ways to go about it did harrold work for coventry corporation if so im sure someone could help on this site if he did trouble is that there was that many unexploded bombs even today they are still being found if you can go back to the source and ask if she can remember the street or the road .we could probably pin point the bus especialy if its on a route we could also help you with photgraghs of buses of that time also maps which the bus company would of used .most of us on this site are true coventry kids and fantastic at finding archives in past .the coventry museum as got a war time bus 334 as i say we have got alot of things to do with the war time another senario is could of been buses outside of coventry evacuating people from coventry if you could just ask the lady where the bus on the bomb was we could probably start from there this is a brilliant site for getting answers for cct and we would like to find out as well thankyou redbus

I'm not sure that the 'rescue mission' angle for this story is plausible.

There were two major movements of people at this time. There were those leaving the city for safety and those moving into the city to work in the factories. The former, mainly children as I understand, travelled by special trains. Those moving the other way travelled by coach and were accommodated in special hostels set up around the city. If Harold was a bus (not coach) driver, I'm sure he would be a corporation employee and working on one of the regular bus services.