Leslie Bingham

Hi, all I am new to this site, having recently discovered who my maternal grandfather was. I am starting to research him. Leslie Bingham was in the Coventry Fire Brigade during the war. He lived in Sackville Street, but at the end of 1944, start of 1945, he must have visited Yorkshire. Perhaps this was with the fire service, perhaps not. I don't think Sackville Street is there any more unfortunately, as I am bringing my mother down to Coventry in October, where we will meet our new found cousin, and look around the area. I have read, probably on this site, that much of the fire service records no longer exist and the weekend we have earmarked to meet up, the archives section at the Herbert Museum is closed. If anyone can help me with my research I would be very grateful.

Hi Suzanne, welcome to the forum First of all, you're right, it isn't there anymore but the Old Maps site gives you the location. Move through the years on the left to see how the area changed. Sackville Street (zoom out if not visible) There is a building called Sackville House at the west end of where it would have been. If you get to the Herbert there is some information about the street. Search for Sackville Street I've searched for Bingham but nothing jumped out. Search for Fire Brigade

Hi, searching through the newspaper archives and these articles are available. Apologies for the first one, easier to view on a phone Leslie lived at number 2 Sackville Street, he's on the 1939 register.

Terrific Heathite Lots about the Fire Brigade at the Herbert but not sure how useful it might be. Even when the History Centre Reading Room is open, the The Archive Room might be shut (I don't think that it's open at the weekends). The Archive Room has the rarer stuff and really needs to be booked in advance. If you can get there you should make a list including the reference numbers and request it in advance. They'll be able to tell you what can be viewed and when. Search for Fire Brigade

Welcome We have a topic "Coventry Fire Brigade", much information, many photos.

Wow, thank you all so much. X. I can't believe how much information there is here already. I spoke with the archives people, they are open on alternate weekends, just not the weekend we have chosen, but the ones either side. Never mind, to see a photo of his wedding is amazing, albeit not to my mum's mother! Extraordinary circumstances, when they will have known the end of the war was in sight and she will have been conceived over the Christmas/New Year festivities.

I had tried searching newspaper clippings but couldn't find anything, so this has been really good to read. I had worked out that his father was in the police force, but this gives us some meat to the story. We have made contact with Leslie's son Will Bingham, who lives in New Zealand, using DNA from Ancestry and found cousins in the Poole area. I am so pleased we found all this through modern science and technology, otherwise my mum would have never known who her father was. To my mind any man who fought fires during the Coventry blitz must have been a hero and that's something my mum now knows about him, and indeed his father in the police force.

Hi Suzanne, An additional bit on info I've found...... In the Midland Daily Telegraph, Monday 10th November 1941, page 4: Births column of the family notices: "BINGHAM - On November 7, to Leslie and Nellie (nee Gamble) - God's gift a son (Robert Forrester), at Shipston-on-Stour. Both Well." I hope this helps? OddSock

Thank you, Oddsock, it seems the name Forrester is very prevalent in this family. It could be worse, on my father's side the name they liked to christen boys was Prescott

Leslie Bingham - first, he was never near the cathedral that night, it was not a priority, they didn't get that far anyway. There is little left of those days, but it's almost certain he would have been between Hales Street and the Burges and Owens when the first call went out. They would have been ready and waiting, and ran into a stream of incendiary bombs that led almost to the station's doors, for it seems they were the first that night. As from what I heard, fires caught alight quickly, and they weren't easy to get to. They were fighting a huge fire, a burning wall collapsed, killing six of them, others injured - unbearable heat, flying glass and bricks, and those old uniforms. After two hours and with broken mains, the water ran out. There was a river under those shops so they used suction pipes. Works brigades helped. Once Owens was known to be safe and all the staff clear, they let it burn. The glow in the sky could be seen for twenty miles. Other brigades came to help, but with little or no water it was an hopeless task. Coventry made a grass centre in their honour, and to all the people on duty that night, but modernists have forgotten quickly.