I love to settle down and read the Saturday papers with a pot of coffee and a chocolate bicky or two! As I scour the paper for something uplifting to read rather than all the doom and gloom that seems to fill the pages, I love it when there's a feel-good story or an article that makes me laugh! It's a bonus to find stories of local Coventry people in the Nationals too, and this week's Saturday’s Daily Mail came up trumps with a lovely story about a soldier from the second world war who was branded a disgrace over his grenade death, but in fact 65 years on it was revealed that he was a heroic lifesaver.
Having been told that Bombardier Robert Key was ‘showing off’ and killed himself with a reckless stunt that put children’s lives at risk, the ‘disgrace’ meant that the family refused to talk about the bombardier’s death for over 50 years. However, the Army have now told his family in Coventry that the military inquiry at the time failed to properly translate the accounts of the townsfolk. It turned out that their relative was actually saving a child who had removed the pin from a live grenade and was in fact a hero.
It happened in Annezin, a small town in Northern France, one day after Liberation Day on September 5th, 1944. 31 year old Bombardier Key was on patrol on his own when he rushed over and grabbed the grenade from a child who had picked it up and pulled out the pin. As he ran quickly away with the grenade cradled in his jacket, it exploded and killed him instantly.
The truth only came out when Mayor Daniel Delomez from Annezin traced the soldier’s relatives in Coventry to tell them that a road in the town was to be named after Bombardier Key in honour of his heroism, and invited them to the naming of the new road in a housing estate that now stands on the field where Robert Key died. The mayor wanted to revive the memory of the brave soldier, whose heroic deed saved the lives of 20 children without thought for his own safety.
Bombardier Key’s niece, Gill Mills from Coventry, is so glad that his courage has finally been revealed so they can all be proud of his actions and know that his memory will live on. They hope that more than 15 members of the family will travel to France next year for the naming ceremony.
The family want the Ministry of Defence to amend Robert Key’s military service record to reflect this new information. The MoD would not comment about the initial inquiry and have said it is unable to change an individual’s service record. However, a spokesperson has said that Mr. Key’s family can write to them and ask for a permanent letter put in his file recognising what he did.
I really hope they do, because Bombardier Key was not a villain, he was a hero, and his courage should be recognised and his story told to future generations of his family and others.
Lest we forget.
Ali, thebestof Coventry
