A Mayor of Mixed Fortune
Councillor Major Ralph Clews Royal Army Service Corps & Lord Mayor of Coventry 1977
The Man Ralph Clews was born on 23rd December 1908 at 5C 6H Gosford Street in Coventry, son of John James Clews and Eliza nee Smith. He was one of 10 children, John Charles born 1894, Mary Eliza 1896, Alice 1897 who sadly died aged only 10 in 1907, William E 1900, Annie 1903, Frank 1905, Lenonard 1907, Alice 1913, Edna M 1915 and Enos 1918. Ralph attended Cheylesmore School, in Coventry where he later disclosed “the seeds of patriotism were implanted in him”. Ralph worked as a Motor Trader in Coventry marrying Rosamund Burwood during the third quarter of 1933 and having no children. During World War II Ralph enlisted into the Army as an Officer Cadet, and on 5th December 1942 granted an Emergency Commission in the Royal Army Service Corps as 2nd Lieutenant, service number 255238. It is not known where he served during the War but he was posted to Palestine during the Mandate towards its end and awarded the 1939-45 Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45 and General Service Medal with clasp ‘Palestine 1945-48’, the latter appearing in Army Order 146 of 1947. He was promoted to War Substantive Lieutenant and Acting Captain. Following the War Ralph returned to the motor trade as a sales director and later director of his own company, Ralph Clews Ltd. He transferred to the Territorial Army, Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 9th December 1947 retaining the rank of Captain and also became interested and involved in local politics. He was elected on to Coventry Corporation in March 1950 representing Cheylesmore Ward as a Conservative Councillor and on 22nd August 1951 promoted to Major and awarded the Efficiency Medal ‘Territorial’ as Lieutenant RASC on 30th October. By 1960 Ralph and Rosamund were living at 3 Orchard Crescent, Cheylesmore and Ralph had become Chairman of the Estates and General Purposes Committee and Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group on the Council. On 5th November 1968 was elected as an Alderman, beating the Labour nominee Councillor Arthur Waugh by 31 votes to 22. During February 1971 having served on the council for 21 years, winning five elections and seeing the Special Charter incorporated by Her Majesty the Queen in her Coronation year bestowing the title of Lord Mayor, Ralph was nominated as Deputy Lord Mayor of Coventry. His appointment however met with protests from the Labour group who abstained from voting as they felt the nomination should have gone to a Labour Alderman, G Sheridan as he had served on the council longer than Ralph. However as the actual next in line, Alderman R Brain, a Conservative, had declined the nomination on health grounds, the Tories argued it should be their choice. Ralph was formally elected on 27th May and at the same meeting became chairman of the Finance Committee and vice-chairman of policy.
Following a busy year as Deputy Lord Mayor during which Ralph gave up his garage business to focus on civic affairs, it was expected, as he was now the senior serving Councillor, that he would be elected Lord Mayor for the municipal year 1972-3. However the squabble over the choice of nominees and the previous years controversy surrounding Ralph’s appointment continued and the Socialists, who had regained control of the Council, on 4th May gaining 12 seats, elected their own nominee, Wilfred Spencer, as Lord Mayor instead of Ralph overturning the customary practice. Ralph was bitterly disappointed and had to look for another job believing he had lost about £2000.00 in earnings during the year. He did vow to remain and serve on the council and the Conservatives put his name forward for the office of Lord Mayor for the next five years, but he was rejected by the opposition who kept putting their own candidates forward until the Conservatives regained control. In 1974 Ralph was also elected onto the West Midlands County Council, and following local Government re-organisation reverted to a Councillor on Coventry Council, winning his old seat of Cheylesmore back in the local elections. During July 1975 he was involved in a car accident on the Cheylesmore by-pass leading to Stonebridge Highway, when the mini he had been driving left the road, hit a road sign and rolled over three times. The car was severely damaged but Ralph escaped lightly with a cut to his head for which he was treated at Coventry & Warwickshire hospital. However he was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, found to be over the limit, fined £70.00 and banned from driving for a year.Following the May 1977 local elections the Conservatives swept to power on the County Council gaining 52 seats from Labour, but only gained control of Coventry Council by one following the death of the incumbent Lord Mayor in April. Seizing on this opportunity the Tory group nominated Ralph as Lord Mayor, offering to redress the ongoing issue of the Mayorality by following Ralph with a Labour nominee, then another Tory. However the Labour group rejected the offer as they felt the appointment was politically based rather than on length of service, thus the Tories nominated their own candidates until they lost control again in 1979.
Ralph was finally elected, without expressing any bitterness towards the opposition, as Lord Mayor of Coventry at the Council Meeting on Thursday 19th May 1977 by one vote, leapfrogging the Deputy Lord Mayor Harry Richards, in a replay of what prevented him taking the office in 1972. He said of his year ahead “I want to make the people in Coventry think this is the best city in the world in which to live. I want to recognise the old institutions which sometimes go unnoticed, the Police, the martial services, the Fire Brigade, the sporting fraternity”. He also said “I am not an arrant right winger but I do believe in the conservative way of life, I have tried to recognise the importance of the landowner, the industrialist, the inherent rights of the nobility, without agreeing that they have rights over people” Ralph was also inclined to recognise service and that local authority employees should feel involved. “I want them to know that somebody at the top is as concerned about them as they are about others” During his inauguration Ralph said “I shall dedicate my actions so that the well-being and prosperity of this great city and its citizens, through its institutions, its industry and commerce, its ancient traditions and modern education establishments, its national and international links promoted through its civic relations, shall unite to prove that this, our City of Coventry, is still the greatest among all others”. During his year in Officer Ralph was awarded the Silver Jubilee Medal 1977, an honour he would not have received had he been Mayor in 1972. At the conclusion of his year, and at his successor’s inauguration, the Labour group refused to applaud when a vote of thanks was proposed to Ralph for his time in office, and they abstained from voting when called upon to compliment him for the ‘impartiality and zeal with which he had discharged his arduous duties’. They also refused to applaud his retirement speech as they said he had been biased in the way he had chaired council meetings. Interestingly, Ralph was succeeded as Lord Mayor by Councillor Charles Maxwell, who sadly, like his immediate predecessor, Bob Loosley, died in office. Ralph chaired several of the Council’s major committees and was a Chairman of the former Coventry South Conservative Association and of Coventry South West Constituency Party and continued serving on both the City Council and West Midlands County. In April 1984 he received a boost to his election chances when he became the first Tory President of the Cheylesmore Community Centre, beating the local Labour MP Dave Nellist by 15 votes to 5. On 3rd May, following substantial Labour gains in the city, Ralph retained his seat by only 14 votes after two re-counts, polling 2153. In later life Ralph suffered with diabetes and heart disease and on 17th September 1984 four months after his re-election was driving to a meeting in Birmingham on County Council business. He was in a queue of stationary traffic approaching the M6 junction at Coleshill, when he got out if his car, collapsed on the roadside and died aged 74. Thus ending a political career spanning 34 years and nine election victories.Ralph’s funeral was held on 27th September at Holy Trinity Church in Coventry followed by a cremation at Canley Crematorium. The service was attended by many people including 40 members of his family, the Lord & Lady Mayoress, Labour and Conservative Councillors, representatives from West Midlands County Council and West Midlands Fire Service. Tributes were paid to him by the officiating Vicar Graham Dow, who said “Our city meant everything to him, Ralph died as he lived, serving the city and its citizens. As a man he was generous and sincere, he said what thought and stuck to his views” The Leader of the Conservative Group on the Council, Cllr Arthur Taylor said “He was to the last a great Tory stalwart and a major figure in Coventry South West where he worked hard to get a Conservative MP elected. He made a great contribution to the civic and political of Coventry and its Conservative party. John Butcher, Coventry South West MP said “I think Ralph will be remembered for his many years of service and kindness to the people of Cheylesmore and to the city of Coventry”.
Arthur Waugh, Leader of the Labour Group during Ralph’s most active years said “He was a consistent and committed Conservative who fought hard for his views but never allowed them to sour his relations with people outside the council chamber and committee room” Rosamund lived another 13 years and died in January 1997.
Arthur Waugh, Leader of the Labour Group during Ralph’s most active years said “He was a consistent and committed Conservative who fought hard for his views but never allowed them to sour his relations with people outside the council chamber and committee room” Rosamund lived another 13 years and died in January 1997.
The Story The group of medals awarded to Ralph Clews were seen on E-Bay and initially of interest because of the named General Service and Efficiency Medal and 1977 Silver Jubilee Medal. Following a check of the 1977 Jubilee Medal Roll it was established that Ralph had been awarded the medal as Lord Mayor of Coventry, which fitted comfortably with the general collecting theme and the medals were subsequently acquired on 2nd March 2015 and collected personally from the vendor in Rugby. An appointment was made with the Lord Mayor of Coventry’s Secretary in April to visit the Mayor’s Parlour in the Council House where a photograph was taken of Ralph’s official portrait whilst in office and his name on a past Mayors plaque in the main corridor. A couple of visits to the Herbert Art Gallery & History Centre enabled old copies of the Coventry Evening Telegraph to be copied, and these together with a trawl of Ancestry.UK and the London Gazette enabled a reasonably detailed biography of Ralph to be pieced together. Interestingly Ralph had a series of mixed fortunes in his political career as can be seen from the biography, including his untimely death at the roadside on his way to a Council meeting. Thus the title a Mayor of Mixed Fortune.
Coventry
Arms The Crest, a cat-a-mountain, or wild cat. It is generally said to be a symbol of watchfulness. The helmet is that of an esquire with the visor closed, as with all boroughs. The Shield is coloured red and green, the traditional colours of the city dating back to at least 1441. The device is a golden elephant and on its back a gold castle with three domed turrets. The Supporters The Supporters, granted in 1959, are the Eagle of Leofric (husband of Lady Godiva) and the Phoenix. The Black Eagle of Leofric is a symbol for the ancient Coventry and the Phoenix arising from the flames represents the New Coventry reborn out of the ashes of the old. The Motto Camera Principis (the Prince's Chamber) is believed to refer to Edward, the Black Prince. The Manor of Cheylesmore at Coventry was once owned by his grandmother, Queen Isabella, and eventually passed to him. History of the Coat of Arms. Mary Dormer Harris, the local historian, thought that the elephant had a religious meaning. Animals were often treated as religious symbols and the elephant is seen, not only as a beast so strong that he can carry a tower - Coventry's castle - full of armed men, but also as a symbol of Christ's redemption of the human race. The animal, according to one story, is supposed to sleep standing, leaning against a tree. Hunters sever the trunk, and he falls helpless to the ground, until a small elephant approaches and pulls him up with his trunk. This was seen in medieval times as the type of fall of Adam and Eve and of Christ's redemption of the human race. The elephant’s enemy was said to be the dragon and Coventry is also said by some to be the birthplace of St. George, who slew the dragon. The older arms for the city also showed a tree – said to be Cofa’s Tree from which Coventry took its name, but that is no longer used. Coventry has a long civic tradition dating back to the 14th Century.
The Charter of Incorporation in 1345 gave the people of Coventry the right to choose their own Mayor, bailiffs and Council. It is believed to be the first time this happened in the country. For the next 300 years, civic life was based around the Leet, a court of justice headed by the Mayor and bailiffs. In 1621, King James I granted the Governing Charter to the city, setting up a Grand Council which was made up of the Mayor and 10 aldermen, together with citizens and freemen chosen by the Grand Council. In effect this was a backwards step, as the people of the city no longer had the right to elect people. The first open council election in Coventry took place in 1835 after the Municipal Corporations Act created five wards within the city and a further ward for the villages which made up the ancient county of Coventry. In 1953, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, gave the city a Charter called 'Letters Patent', which entitled the citizens to have a Lord Mayor, and a special meeting was held on 9 July 1953 in St Mary's Hall. Following Local Government re-organisation in 1974 Coventry became a Metropolitan district. Today, Coventry has 18 wards, each represented by three Councillors. The Council has a political management structure of Leader and Cabinet administration, with a cabinet of 10 Councillors, each with their own area they are responsible for. Other councillors sit on Scrutiny Boards, which oversee the decision-making process of the Cabinet and have the power to call in any decisions made.
The Lord Mayor acts as the Chairman of the Council, with the casting vote. As Coventry's first citizen, they are the non-political, ceremonial head of the city. The mayor-making ceremony each May forms part of the Annual Meeting of the City Council.
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the centre of England. It was the capital of England more than once in the 15th century when the seat of Government was held in Coventry. Coventry's heritage includes the Roman Fort at Baginton, Lady Godiva, St Mary's Guildhall (where kings and queens were entertained) and three cathedrals. It is located in the county of West Midlands and until 1974 was part of Warwickshire. Coventry is the 10th largest city in England and the 12th largest UK city overall. It is also the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, with a population of 329,810 in 2013.
Coventry was the world's first twin city, when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during the Second World War. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city is now also twinned with Dresden, Lidice, Saint-Étienne and 22 other cities around the world. A part of the city centre at the entrance to the Lower Precinct is named Lidice Place. It is an ancient city that predates Birmingham and Leicester. It is likely that Coventry grew from a settlement of the Bronze Age near the present-day city centre where Coventry's bowl-shaped topography and, at that time large flowing river and lakes, created the ideal settlement area, with mild weather and thick woods: food, water and shelter would have been easily found. The people of the area may have been the Corieltauvi, a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites or signs of centralised government. The Romans founded another settlement in Baginton and another formed around a Saxon nunnery, founded c. AD 700 by St Osburga, that was later left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. In time, a market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded. By the 14th century, Coventry was an important centre of the cloth trade, and throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England. The bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541). Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, and in 1451 became a county in its own right. Hostile attitudes of the cityfolk towards Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the English Civil War are believed to have been the origin of the phrase "to be sent to Coventry", which in Britain means "to be ostracised"; although their physical needs were catered for, the Royalist prisoners were literally never spoken to by anybody. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main British centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, in Lancashire and Clerkenwell in London. As the industry declined, due mainly to competition from Swiss Made clock and watch manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and eventually the motorbike, car, machine tool and aircraft industries. In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture. The industry energised by the invention by James Starley and his nephew John Kemp Starley of the Rover safety bicycle, which was safer and more popular than the pioneering penny-farthing. The company became Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, and Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry. The design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is in the city at their Whitley plant and although vehicle assembly ceased at the Browns Lane plant in 2004, Jaguar's head office returned to the city in 2011, and is also sited in Whitley. Jaguar is owned by the Indian company, Tata Motors. Coventry became home to one of Britain's first local ambulance services in 1902. The local entertainment business received a boost in 1910 when the city's first cinema opened. Public transport was enhanced in 1914 when motorbuses took to local roads. With many of the city's older properties becoming increasingly unfit for habitation, the first council houses were let to their tenants in 1917. With Coventry's industrial base continuing to soar after the end of the Great War a year later, numerous private and council housing developments took place across the city in the 1920s and 1930s. The development of a southern by-pass around the city, starting in the 1930s and being completed in 1940, helped deliver more urban areas to the city on previously rural land. Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War, most notoriously from a massive Luftwaffe air raid known as the "Coventry Blitz" on 14 November 1940. Firebombing on this date led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to Coventry's historic cathedral, leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three quarters of the city's industrial plants. More than 800 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless. The Germans coined the term "Coventrate" to describe the tactics of complete urban devastation developed for the raid.] After the war, it was revealed that Churchill had prior knowledge of the attack due to the relative daily ease with which the Bletchley Park "enigma crackers" decoded all daily Luftwaffe traffic since May of that same year. However, he decided to let the attack proceed because to do otherwise would alert the Germans that Britain had broken their code. Aside from London, Hull and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre. The city was probably targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants which contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Britain. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use. Several structures were demolished simply to make way for modern developments which saw the city centre's buildings and road infrastructure altered almost beyond recognition by 1970. In the post-war years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its kind in Europe on such a scale) and in 1962 Sir Basil Spence's much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral (incorporating one of the world's largest tapestries) was consecrated. Its prefabricated steel spire (flèche) was lowered into place by helicopter. Major expansion to Coventry had taken place previously, in the 1920s and 1930s, to provide housing for the large influx of workers who came to work in the city's booming factories. The areas which were expanded or created in this development included Radford, Coundon, Canley, Cheylesmore and Stoke Heath. Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s and Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age'. During this period the disposable income of Coventrians was amongst the highest in the country and both the sports and the arts benefited. A new sports centre, with one of the few Olympic standard swimming pools in the UK, was constructed and Coventry City Football Club reached the First Division of English Football. The Belgrade Theatre was also constructed along with the Herbert Art Gallery. Coventry's pedestrianised Precinct shopping area came into its own and was considered one of the finest retail experiences outside of London. In 1965 the new University of Warwick campus was opened to students, and rapidly became one of the country's leading higher-education institutions. Coventry's large industrial base made it attractive to the wave of Asian and Caribbean immigrants who arrived from Commonwealth colonies after 1948. In 1960, one of Britain's first mosques – and the very first in Coventry – was opened on Eagle Street to serve the city's growing Islamic community. The 1970s, however, saw a decline in the British motor industry and Coventry suffered particularly badly, especially towards the end of that decade. By the early 1980s, Coventry had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and crime rates rose well above the national average. Some 30 years later, Coventry is now considered as one of the UK's safer major cities and has gradually recovered economically with newer industries locating there, although the motor industry continues to decline. By 2008, only one motor manufacturing plant was operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the popular TX4 taxi cabs. On 17 March 2010 LTI announced they would no longer be producing bodies and chassis in Coventry, instead producing them in China and shipping them in for final assembly in Coventry. On the sporting scene, Coventry Rugby Football Club was consistently among the nation's leading rugby football sides from the early 20th century, peaking in the 1970s and 1980s with a host of major honours and international players. Association football, on the other hand, was scarcely a claim to fame until 1967, when Coventry City F.C. finally won promotion to the top flight of English football as champions of the Football League Second Division. They would stay among the elite for the next 34 years, reaching their pinnacle with FA Cup glory in 1987 – the first and to date only major trophy in the club's history.[22] Their long stay in the top flight of English football ended in relegation in 2001, and in 2012 they were relegated again to the third tier of English football. Highfield Road, to the east of the city centre, was Coventry City's home for 106 years from 1899. They finally departed from the stadium in 2005 on their relocation to the 32,600-seat Ricoh Arena some three miles to the north of the city centre, in the Rowleys Green district. Since the year 2000, the city has also been home to one of the most successful Ice Hockey teams in the country, the Coventry Blaze who are four time Elite League champions.
Arms The Crest, a cat-a-mountain, or wild cat. It is generally said to be a symbol of watchfulness. The helmet is that of an esquire with the visor closed, as with all boroughs. The Shield is coloured red and green, the traditional colours of the city dating back to at least 1441. The device is a golden elephant and on its back a gold castle with three domed turrets. The Supporters The Supporters, granted in 1959, are the Eagle of Leofric (husband of Lady Godiva) and the Phoenix. The Black Eagle of Leofric is a symbol for the ancient Coventry and the Phoenix arising from the flames represents the New Coventry reborn out of the ashes of the old. The Motto Camera Principis (the Prince's Chamber) is believed to refer to Edward, the Black Prince. The Manor of Cheylesmore at Coventry was once owned by his grandmother, Queen Isabella, and eventually passed to him. History of the Coat of Arms. Mary Dormer Harris, the local historian, thought that the elephant had a religious meaning. Animals were often treated as religious symbols and the elephant is seen, not only as a beast so strong that he can carry a tower - Coventry's castle - full of armed men, but also as a symbol of Christ's redemption of the human race. The animal, according to one story, is supposed to sleep standing, leaning against a tree. Hunters sever the trunk, and he falls helpless to the ground, until a small elephant approaches and pulls him up with his trunk. This was seen in medieval times as the type of fall of Adam and Eve and of Christ's redemption of the human race. The elephant’s enemy was said to be the dragon and Coventry is also said by some to be the birthplace of St. George, who slew the dragon. The older arms for the city also showed a tree – said to be Cofa’s Tree from which Coventry took its name, but that is no longer used. Coventry has a long civic tradition dating back to the 14th Century.
The Charter of Incorporation in 1345 gave the people of Coventry the right to choose their own Mayor, bailiffs and Council. It is believed to be the first time this happened in the country. For the next 300 years, civic life was based around the Leet, a court of justice headed by the Mayor and bailiffs. In 1621, King James I granted the Governing Charter to the city, setting up a Grand Council which was made up of the Mayor and 10 aldermen, together with citizens and freemen chosen by the Grand Council. In effect this was a backwards step, as the people of the city no longer had the right to elect people. The first open council election in Coventry took place in 1835 after the Municipal Corporations Act created five wards within the city and a further ward for the villages which made up the ancient county of Coventry. In 1953, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, gave the city a Charter called 'Letters Patent', which entitled the citizens to have a Lord Mayor, and a special meeting was held on 9 July 1953 in St Mary's Hall. Following Local Government re-organisation in 1974 Coventry became a Metropolitan district. Today, Coventry has 18 wards, each represented by three Councillors. The Council has a political management structure of Leader and Cabinet administration, with a cabinet of 10 Councillors, each with their own area they are responsible for. Other councillors sit on Scrutiny Boards, which oversee the decision-making process of the Cabinet and have the power to call in any decisions made.
The Lord Mayor acts as the Chairman of the Council, with the casting vote. As Coventry's first citizen, they are the non-political, ceremonial head of the city. The mayor-making ceremony each May forms part of the Annual Meeting of the City Council.
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the centre of England. It was the capital of England more than once in the 15th century when the seat of Government was held in Coventry. Coventry's heritage includes the Roman Fort at Baginton, Lady Godiva, St Mary's Guildhall (where kings and queens were entertained) and three cathedrals. It is located in the county of West Midlands and until 1974 was part of Warwickshire. Coventry is the 10th largest city in England and the 12th largest UK city overall. It is also the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, with a population of 329,810 in 2013.
Coventry was the world's first twin city, when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during the Second World War. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city is now also twinned with Dresden, Lidice, Saint-Étienne and 22 other cities around the world. A part of the city centre at the entrance to the Lower Precinct is named Lidice Place. It is an ancient city that predates Birmingham and Leicester. It is likely that Coventry grew from a settlement of the Bronze Age near the present-day city centre where Coventry's bowl-shaped topography and, at that time large flowing river and lakes, created the ideal settlement area, with mild weather and thick woods: food, water and shelter would have been easily found. The people of the area may have been the Corieltauvi, a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites or signs of centralised government. The Romans founded another settlement in Baginton and another formed around a Saxon nunnery, founded c. AD 700 by St Osburga, that was later left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. In time, a market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded. By the 14th century, Coventry was an important centre of the cloth trade, and throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England. The bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541). Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, and in 1451 became a county in its own right. Hostile attitudes of the cityfolk towards Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the English Civil War are believed to have been the origin of the phrase "to be sent to Coventry", which in Britain means "to be ostracised"; although their physical needs were catered for, the Royalist prisoners were literally never spoken to by anybody. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main British centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, in Lancashire and Clerkenwell in London. As the industry declined, due mainly to competition from Swiss Made clock and watch manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and eventually the motorbike, car, machine tool and aircraft industries. In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture. The industry energised by the invention by James Starley and his nephew John Kemp Starley of the Rover safety bicycle, which was safer and more popular than the pioneering penny-farthing. The company became Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, and Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry. The design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is in the city at their Whitley plant and although vehicle assembly ceased at the Browns Lane plant in 2004, Jaguar's head office returned to the city in 2011, and is also sited in Whitley. Jaguar is owned by the Indian company, Tata Motors. Coventry became home to one of Britain's first local ambulance services in 1902. The local entertainment business received a boost in 1910 when the city's first cinema opened. Public transport was enhanced in 1914 when motorbuses took to local roads. With many of the city's older properties becoming increasingly unfit for habitation, the first council houses were let to their tenants in 1917. With Coventry's industrial base continuing to soar after the end of the Great War a year later, numerous private and council housing developments took place across the city in the 1920s and 1930s. The development of a southern by-pass around the city, starting in the 1930s and being completed in 1940, helped deliver more urban areas to the city on previously rural land. Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War, most notoriously from a massive Luftwaffe air raid known as the "Coventry Blitz" on 14 November 1940. Firebombing on this date led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to Coventry's historic cathedral, leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three quarters of the city's industrial plants. More than 800 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless. The Germans coined the term "Coventrate" to describe the tactics of complete urban devastation developed for the raid.] After the war, it was revealed that Churchill had prior knowledge of the attack due to the relative daily ease with which the Bletchley Park "enigma crackers" decoded all daily Luftwaffe traffic since May of that same year. However, he decided to let the attack proceed because to do otherwise would alert the Germans that Britain had broken their code. Aside from London, Hull and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre. The city was probably targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants which contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Britain. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use. Several structures were demolished simply to make way for modern developments which saw the city centre's buildings and road infrastructure altered almost beyond recognition by 1970. In the post-war years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its kind in Europe on such a scale) and in 1962 Sir Basil Spence's much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral (incorporating one of the world's largest tapestries) was consecrated. Its prefabricated steel spire (flèche) was lowered into place by helicopter. Major expansion to Coventry had taken place previously, in the 1920s and 1930s, to provide housing for the large influx of workers who came to work in the city's booming factories. The areas which were expanded or created in this development included Radford, Coundon, Canley, Cheylesmore and Stoke Heath. Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s and Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age'. During this period the disposable income of Coventrians was amongst the highest in the country and both the sports and the arts benefited. A new sports centre, with one of the few Olympic standard swimming pools in the UK, was constructed and Coventry City Football Club reached the First Division of English Football. The Belgrade Theatre was also constructed along with the Herbert Art Gallery. Coventry's pedestrianised Precinct shopping area came into its own and was considered one of the finest retail experiences outside of London. In 1965 the new University of Warwick campus was opened to students, and rapidly became one of the country's leading higher-education institutions. Coventry's large industrial base made it attractive to the wave of Asian and Caribbean immigrants who arrived from Commonwealth colonies after 1948. In 1960, one of Britain's first mosques – and the very first in Coventry – was opened on Eagle Street to serve the city's growing Islamic community. The 1970s, however, saw a decline in the British motor industry and Coventry suffered particularly badly, especially towards the end of that decade. By the early 1980s, Coventry had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and crime rates rose well above the national average. Some 30 years later, Coventry is now considered as one of the UK's safer major cities and has gradually recovered economically with newer industries locating there, although the motor industry continues to decline. By 2008, only one motor manufacturing plant was operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the popular TX4 taxi cabs. On 17 March 2010 LTI announced they would no longer be producing bodies and chassis in Coventry, instead producing them in China and shipping them in for final assembly in Coventry. On the sporting scene, Coventry Rugby Football Club was consistently among the nation's leading rugby football sides from the early 20th century, peaking in the 1970s and 1980s with a host of major honours and international players. Association football, on the other hand, was scarcely a claim to fame until 1967, when Coventry City F.C. finally won promotion to the top flight of English football as champions of the Football League Second Division. They would stay among the elite for the next 34 years, reaching their pinnacle with FA Cup glory in 1987 – the first and to date only major trophy in the club's history.[22] Their long stay in the top flight of English football ended in relegation in 2001, and in 2012 they were relegated again to the third tier of English football. Highfield Road, to the east of the city centre, was Coventry City's home for 106 years from 1899. They finally departed from the stadium in 2005 on their relocation to the 32,600-seat Ricoh Arena some three miles to the north of the city centre, in the Rowleys Green district. Since the year 2000, the city has also been home to one of the most successful Ice Hockey teams in the country, the Coventry Blaze who are four time Elite League champions.
Medal Details:
- 1939-45 Star: Unnamed as issued
- Defence Medal: Unnamed as issued.
- War Medal 1939-45: Unnamed as issued.
- General Service Medal: CAPTAIN. R.CLEWS. R.A.S.C.
- Silver Jubilee Medal 1977: Unnamed as issued.
- Efficiency Medal: LT. R.CLEWS. R.A.S.C..
This page last updated 10 Dec 18