Childhood Memories of the War in Kenilworth

Arthur Pearson-Coleman was 11 when war broke out. He remembers hearing the announcement on the radio, and his parents' reactions. He was quite excited by the first Air-raid sirens and by a bomb falling behind Ashow village which left a crater. He cycled to Coventry with a friend the day after a big air raid, and saw the cathedral ruins still smoldering. A landmine landed on a hotel in Kenilworth and Arthur's father, who was an ARP warden was busy for several days. People from Coventry who had been staying at the hotel to avoid the bombing in Coventry were killed. On a visit to his grandmother who lived near Kingston on Thames, he remembers seeing the sky full of bomber planes heading for Europe. At the age of 13, he and a group of other senior boys from his school were taught how to handle incendiary bombs by men from the ARP. They were shown how to make them safe with blankets and sandbags, and told never to put water on them as this would make them explode!