Individual results

Interviewee: Jack Evans

Track 1
Born Humber Avenue - moved to Sandy Lane aged 5 years. Two sisters and a brother. Sisters now dead. Dad was a foreman at Daimler (machine shop). Mother didn't work. House - no bath and a copper sink (Humber Avenue). Monday washday. Sandy Lane "like a mansion".

Track 2
Had brother's hand-me-downs. Indoor toilet in Sandy Lane. School until 12 years old - then John Gulson Secondary. School strict - "sat in rows…very regimented (times table)…caned". Always wanted to do sport - no soccer at John Gulson.

Track 3
Keen on sport - not many children had ambitions. Apprentice to builder (not his choice after school). Low expectations in life then - "decisions made for you…wouldn't wash today". Left school aged 16 years - apprentice to builder for 2 years next to football ground. Called up for army.

Track 4
"Wanted to fly" but got in army. Glider regiment. No idea war would start. Blitz "quite bad" in Sandy Lane (evacuated). Factories nearby "devastated". Shelter by house. Father in reserved occupation. Didn't experience hardship - "accepted it".

Track 5
Army - Middlesex regiment. Vickers machine-gunner. Trained on Tiger-Moths, then Hotspur gliders - then Horses. Arnhem pilots "a hard bunch". Glider regiment - taught to look after mates.

Track 6
Studs on boots had to be polished, etc - "did you good for later life". Regiment disbanded later. Became instructor for conscription - "had to turn them into soldiers in 6 weeks" (until next intake). Job in Coventry - made redundant - over road playing football. Married aged 21 years (while in army).

Track 7
No children. Wedding day - living with first wife's parents. Derby was on - Airborne won. Red Berets at wedding. Lived in Monks Croft, Cheylesmore. Coventry City - amateur football in forces before that. Trial.

Track 8
Coventry's third team (while in forces). Played at Highbury (Arsenal's ground) - "underfloor heating in dressing room", etc. Leave every weekend (after war). Very fit - "I could have gone through a brick wall".

Track 9
Build up to match without ball all week - supposed to make players hungry for match on Saturday. Maximum wage - £12 a week in first team (doubled money in factory at Daimler and playing for Nuneaton Borough). Perks - "free haircuts", etc.

Track 10
"Easy living life". Wife clerk in county court office. Not recognised too much as a footballer (compared to today). Coventry being rebuilt in 50's (precinct) - "looked really good" (then). New cathedral - "no thoughts about it"…"sad to see old cathedral go".

Track 11
Not religious. Played mostly for the second team - centre-forward - "bash and bang" (old equipment which weighed a lot more). Physical - punched or rammed. 1-2-3-5 formation of team.

Track 12
"More simple game" then (players had specific jobs). Team talks to sort out opposition. Ian Jameson (another player) "had boils" (Harry Storer - manager) - Ian "knocking around with his daughter!"

Track 13
Player / manager relationship - "the boss the boss…very hard man" (Harry Storer). Also played for another manager Billy Frith (a less hard man). If suspended you didn't get paid (so no-one he knew got suspended!). George Mason (player).

Track 14
"In those days you were tied to the club" (until got rid of). Went into part-time non-league football. The end of his Coventry City days were pinned on the board. Had played football for Daimler apprentices.

Track 15
Machine job at Daimler - "a job has always come to me". Didn't have to work for the firm to play for the team. Good friends from "Daimler days". Surface-grinding machine, etc.

Track 16
Daimler - cars and fighting vehicles - "money quite good" (there for 5 years) - played cricket for them (and other sports) - made redundant. Triumph in Meridan - machine shop job. Went back to Daimler (then taken over by Jaguar).

Track 17
Couldn't stand nights. Job at Rolls-Royce (there for 22 years) - the days you could walk into another job. Rolls - engine repair at Ansty.

Track 18
Sapphires, Proteous, etc. Ministry of Defence work.

Track 19
Dancing, cinema - social life - big circle of friends (over 40 club). "The best collection of records in Coventry…wild nights" (club parties). Holidays.

Track 20
Holiday in Barcelona - when things were once inexpensive. Divorced aged 27/28 years - unusual - "still a little bit of stigma". Introduced "wife to the man she went off with".

Track 21
Stigma attached to divorce. Lot of holidays abroad. Married now 28 years. "She burnt the house down" (cigarette) - "cat screaming it's head off…" (house on fire) - then played golf!

Track 22
House insured. Jack a DIY enthusiast. Retired 1961 - "quite happy" (mostly doing union business later on). Generous lump sum and pension. Played more golf. Second wedding different - registry office.

Track 23
First wife Roman Catholic. Coventry changed - "got worse…attitudes (as all over the world)" - could get mugged now - "manners have altered".

Track 24
Not racist but believes some of the areas they live in are now run down and "no go areas". Coventry - litter louts, etc. Suffered by being rebuilt first after war - built bit by bit.

Track 25
"Suffered by being the first" (recap). Change Coventry - "wants a complete reorganisation". Lower Precinct "a mess". Future - will stay here.

Track 26
Sister in Australia. "Nothing now satisfies me in life"…"this country's gone down the nick". Parents cremated. Had heart-attack swimming.

Track 27
"Scab" ambulance (having been in trade union) - heart-attack 8 years ago. Ashes will be sprinkled on a golf course. No regrets. His generation took things as they came. Been in present house 50 years.

Track 28
Wife said "there was always full employment"…(other things have got better). (short track).

Track 29
First game for first team - crowd changed their mind about him later!

Time: 83:24

Coventry Lives Oral History Project, date of birth: 1926