As an apprentice toolmaker, Thomas Cumberlidge was considered a far too valuable commodity to have his life put at risk in the regular army.
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Standard Eight, Early Production
Excerpt from Standard Eight early production.
Recreation Club – Jim Spain
When the last Triumph car left the assembly line at Coventry’s Canley plant the last workers were redeployed to other factories in the group.
Herald Pub – The Pub Sign
This pub was named after the Triumph Herald motor car, which was first built in 1959 in the Standard factory that stood on the other side of the railway line from the pub.
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Royal British Legion Triumph Pipe Band
For Jim Cosgrove of Coundon, the skirl of the pipes was a familiar sound at home. Three members of his family were musicians in the famed Royal British Legion Triumph Pipe Band.
My grandfather Jim Cosgrove was founder of the band when he came to Binley in 1936 to work at the colliery. He came from Coalburn in Lanarkshire and had three sons. Two of them, Jim my father and Wally my uncle were also pipers in the band. They all eventually worked at the Standard Motor Company.
Standard Vanguard, full-sized model
I worked for the Coventry Tile Company, one of the finest tile fixing firms in the country.
One Saturday morning, I was sent to do a small tiling job at the Standard Motors factory. I arrived with my small tool bit, the tiles and other materials having been delivered the day before.
I was instructed to enquire at a certain office as to the location of the job to be done. To this day I don’t know where I went wrong, but I found myself in a very large space, which contained a full-sized model of the Standard Vanguard.
If I had been looking at a spacecraft I could not have been more amazed.
The older Standard boys will know what I mean. Two men appeared and I found myself marched into an office where a lady typist was instructed to type a “I hereby declare that I will not mention what I have seen”, etc.
I duly signed the document but said “I am a Coventry lad, and that wild horses would not drag me from what I had seen.”
I have lots of happy memories of the Standard Motor Company.
Harry Pointer, Coventry
