Pearl Hyde

Just before the war started, the Govt. formed the Mass Observation unit, these people were trained to monitor the mood and feelings of the country during wartime conditions, several were in Coventry the day after the blitz, and for several days, made reports to the Govt. But there were some great people in Coventry. One was Pearl Hyde, head of the WVS in the city, by the Friday lunchtime she had vans up and running in various locations, serving free teas and sandwiches to the people, I think it was said she took over most of the central police station with her volunteers, making and distributing the free food and drinks, the vans and money were given by people all round the world After the war Pearl went on to run two narrow boats on the canal for pensioners' trips.

Ah, yes. The Pearl Hyde canal boats. That brings back memories of a very eventful day at the Canal Basin when I was in Weights & Measures. They had cut a piece out of the hull of one of them to allow a lower access for wheelchairs and it had to be load tested before being used for passengers. We were asked to do the testing using some of our extensive stock of 56lb weights. We had a long wheelbase Land Rover to transport the weights and it would normally have a ton in the back. However, they needed 30cwt and we thought we would do it in one go rather than two trips. So the poor Land Rover's front wheels were barely touching the road and the steering was rather vague. Anyway, we arrived and loaded the weights along the bench seats down the length of the boats. The test was then to shift all of them to one side to simulate everyone going to look out of one set of windows, and we were doing the shifting. The boat listed alarmingly, the water was almost lapping over the gap in the hull, and we got off a bit sharpish. We adjourned to the Admiral Codrington for medication to recover. They added ballast to the boat and the test went rather better in the afternoon.

I believe that Pearl Hyde was a Labour councillor and later became mayor of the city.

About 1957/8 our class from Courthouse Green had a trip on the Alderman Pearl Hyde. I don't know whether the boat was one of those operated under her scheme or it was a separate boat simply renamed after her (ex Albert ?). Unfortunately our famously unreliable weather washed the day out, we spent the trip huddled in a cavernous hold out of the rain. Never mind.

My dad used to tell us a tale. He worked as a conductor and then a driver for Coventry Transport. One day when he was a conductor his bus was full so he couldn't let any more on. The next lady in the queue said "Young man, don't you know who I am?" My dad said "I don't care if you are Mayor of Coventry, you are not getting on the bus" and yes you have guessed it, it was Pearl Hyde!

A link to a youtube tribute to Pearl Hyde Pearl Hyde Tribute

What was pointed out to me was, the people had read and knew about Dunkirk, the losses in N Africa, and the loss of France when Marshall Petain signed a armistice with Germany. June 1940, it was fully expected that Germany would invade us, the people waited and waited all through the long hot summer. The threat of invasion was high in the minds of the people. It was called 'the phoney war. Along with the blackout and the rationing, nerves were getting frayed. On top of that came the 'Blitz'. Whatever people thought of the Blitz' a few hours after the bombers left, to see these tea wagons up and running, gave Coventry a tremendous shot in the arm, when it needed very badly, for that Pearl Hyde and her team deserved all the credit one could give.

Alderman Mrs Pearl Hyde is, of course, included in our list of Famous Coventrians