An exhibition of paintings inspired by Coventry’s Blitz by Iain White.

The works capture the destruction as well as the resilience and stoicism shown by the citizens of Coventry in the face of such adversity. The exhibition will be found behind the High Alter, opposite the Lady Chapel, open during Cathedral Opening Hours.

Iain writes about his work:
"Born in 1943, I grew up in the austerity of post-war Coventry. My playgrounds were bomb sites, the remains of wartime shadow factories and the canals. As a gas engineer, my father was in a reserved occupation, as was my maternal grandfather, a freeman of the City, and a foreman at the Daimler works at Radford, building aircraft parts for the war effort, for which he was later awarded the BEM. My parent’s pre-war home had been bombed during the Easter Raids of 1941, and they had been re-housed in a terraced house elsewhere in the city. This was the first home I remember. After the war, my family moved to the south coast in 1955.

"Whilst clearing her bungalow after my mother died, I came across several black and white photographs and newspapers from the 1940s, some of which depicted the loss of our family home as well as some images of damage to King Henry VIII Grammar School whose Junior School I joined in 1947. It was these images that led me to research further the Coventry Blitz and to reflect on my early childhood in Coventry and later on the profound similarity of those black and white photographs with contemporary images of conflicts today."