​Armstrong Siddeley Works​

​​Armstrong Siddeley was established in 1919 and was predominately a car manufacturer during the prewar period. During that period, they also purchased other notable companies connected to the industrial war effort at the outbreak of war. These included Vickers Armstrong, linked to military vehicles and firearms such as the Vickers Machine Gun, and Avro, linked to aircraft manufacturing and who later produced the Avro Lancaster Bomber. Armstrong Siddeley also later purchased Hawker, Sopwith and Gloster all linked to aircraft production.

​The Armstrong Siddeley works in Coventry mainly constructed aircraft components and engines. To the south of the works was RAF Baginton, a Royal Air Force airfield located 3 miles away, today a short ten-minute journey. At RAF Baginton was an Avro Lancaster assembly line where parts, assembled in the works, were transported.

​The works were attacked by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) on 19 to 20 October 1940. This resulted in four casualties, all of them working at a First Aid Post (FAP). Nurse Jessie Stephen, FAP members John Davies and George Stones and St Johns Ambulance staff Fred Gatford.

​On the night of 14 November 1940, during the Luftwaffe bombing raid named Operation Moonlight Sonata, the factory was targeted. In total 26 workers were killed at the works, including six teenagers, the youngest being Edna Evans aged 16. The eldest was Alfred Barron aged 61.

​The works were never destroyed by enemy bombing. Significant damage was caused on multiple raids, but repairs were made and production continued of aircraft parts.

​The owner of Armstrong Siddeley was Sir John Davenport Siddeley, 1st Baron of Kenilworth, CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). He oversaw the business of the works but was not present on the shop floor. He was knighted by the King in 1932 and went on to purchase the nearby Kenilworth Castle in 1937.