Violet Howard Update

Last time I wrote about Violet we had some confusion about the date she died.

Well I received a call from her younger brother Tony the other day and he put me straight that 1941 was definitely wrong. He remembers being told it was about 6 weeks before he was born and also that Violet’s tragic death started his mum off with an early delivery (Tony was born 16 Dec 1940). He believes she was standing sheltering in an alley way when the bomb struck.

When we spoke he reckoned it was 14 Nov 1940. 6 weeks prior to his birth would put it at 4 Nov 1940.

The two websites I quoted in the earlier article have sourced Violet’s death as 5 Nov 1940. Ancestry carries a death index record for Violet ‘Greensel’ (we will get the correct spelling one of these days) in the last quarter of 1940, which is consistent. The question still remains for the family, why the nice new headstone (see photo in earlier article) gives her death as 1941.

I guess at some point we can order a copy of the actual death certificate to finally nail it. Meanwhile, I’m tending towards the Coventry websites having drawn their accurate descriptions about the mass killings caused by the blitz, and the circumstances of Violet’s death, from a pretty reliable source in Coventry civic records. So for now, I’m personally going with 5 Nov 1940.

It’s amazing what happens when you start shaking the tree! Also much to my delight and surprise, Les pulled out a set of photos including more of Violet…see below.

• The lovely portrait on the left has obviously been hand tinted.
• The middle one is a puzzle. Who is the baby Violet is holding…it can’t be Tony or Trevor as they were both born some weeks after Violet died, Tony 16 Dec 1940 and Trevor 27 Feb 1941. Any idea from the family?
• The right hand photo looks to have the same ladies (possibly friends) that appeared in the previous post about Violet.

Has anyone else got any stories or photos of Violet?

Violet HOWARD–a Family War Tragedy

 

Lesley reminded me today about her aunt Violet after she read  a post on facebook at the weekend about the Coventry blitz in WW2.

 

Violet was the third of 6 children born to Lesley's grandparents, John and Annie HOWARD on 2nd Nov 1918, just 9 days before the Armistice was signed, ending WW1 hostilities.

 

HOWARD Family Group - about 1924

In this photo Violet is pictured far right with her two older siblings May and John and her two younger siblings Charles and Ronald. As we currently believe baby Ronald was born about 1924, this would be the approximate year of the photo.

 

 

HOWARD Family Group - abt. 1930

This family group shot was taken around 1930 and shows 4 of the 6 children with Violet on the left.

 

 

Violet Howard

(The first of only two further photos we have of Violet – all probably late 1930's)

 

Violet pictured here by a church

 

Family Headstone with Violet, her mother and older brother

(We only know she married a GRENSIL [there are multiple spellings published for this surname] from the inscription on her headstone - no firm marriage date yet. And the headstone suggests she died in 1941.)

 

 

In fact sadly, Violet was killed by a WW2 bomb at the young age of 22. We were told this by Lesley's late parents. They said she would ignore good advice to avoid areas down town during the bombing raids and she was buried under rubble during an attack.

 

 

We didn't know a great deal else until Lesley did a Google search and discovered one or more excellent websites all about the Blitz in Coventry. The above clip is an extract from one such site and seems to confirm that poor Violet was a victim of the November 1940 bombing, losing her short life in the Foleshill Road, Coventry. This date is slightly at odds with the year of death given on her headstone, so further checking will need to be done.

 

 

Another website, this one referring to books you can obtain about the period and author ‘Trevor Harkin’ also refers to the stories of the victims by name, including our Violet.

 

More updates when we get the details.