大象传媒

The Stratford upon Avon Society and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

12a - Transcription of an interview that took place on the 18th February, 2005
Present:
Neville Usher Dr.Michael Coigley

Neville Usher: 鈥� you can tell, the tape recorder, it works but it鈥檚 noisy. And I am just transcribing one now were the problem is that the lady had got a canary with the loudest voice I have ever come across, it鈥檚 a job to hear.

Dr. Michael Coigley: Talking about birds, well I can tell you a lovely story about old Mrs. Tromans who was very old when she died in Alveston, and she had this budgerigar, and we went in to see her one evening and shut the door loudly, I didn鈥檛 hear what it said, but she said oh she said I am sorry, did you hear that, did you hear that? Oh I said no what? Oh she said the budgerigar, she said I got that she said when my dad died, after the war and it had been with him all the war in London, and if there鈥檚 ever a loud bang anywhere, it says 鈥渂ugger old Hitler鈥�, and if you slammed the door like we did, you could just hear this budgerigar saying 鈥渂ugger old Hitler鈥�.

Neville Usher: My grandparents had a friend who was the first female police officer in Birmingham, and one of my earliest memories is being taken to see this lady who lived in Yardley by the cemetery there and she had a parrot, and the parrot used to say 鈥淚鈥檓 Polly Miles, who the devil are you鈥�?

Anyway, it鈥檚 Friday the 18th of February 2005, and we are at 6 The Fold, Payton Street, Stratford, it鈥檚 11.15 and it鈥檚 very nice to be talking to Michael Coigley.
Could we just start very briefly with where you were born and how you came to Stratford and then move on to the war Mike?

Dr. Michael Coigley: Oh crikey. I was born in central London, the other side of the road from the Middlesex Hospital in a flat in a property which my father and grandfather later bought, and there鈥檚 a long story to that. And then we moved very quickly to Sidcup in Kent where my maternal grandfather was Borough Surveyor and Engineer, he had been head-hunted. He was a civil engineer of some repute really, he used to design 鈥�, he was very good at designing sewerage disposal systems. Well they got him in to oversee the first big East End slum overspill out of London to around Sidcup. And we had this lovely house which was an old medieval house with a Victorian extension on it, and he said better move because it is coming right behind you, so we moved out to Sevenoaks, I was born in London.

And then I was at Sevenoaks School, which is I think the first school to bring in the international baccalaureate, very progressive school and always very high up. The oldest 鈥�, one of the oldest grammar schools in the country, the only school mentioned by Shakespeare in one of his plays. Lord Sackville from Old House owned a lot of property round here of course, owned Halls Croft at one time, the Sackville鈥檚, and in Henry VI part II, (shall I go on with this, because it鈥檚 very 鈥�?)

Neville Usher: Yes please, yes.

Dr. Michael Coigley: In Henry VI part II, when Jack Cave the Kentish rebel gets to Smithfield in London and is confronted by Lord Saye and Sele who now lives at
Broughton Court 鈥�, Broughton Castle near Banbury. Well Sele is a little place next to Sevenoaks in Kent and he took his 鈥�, it was a Norman title that he took the title Sele from Sele next to Sevenoaks and he and Sir William Sennard were the two founders of Sevenoaks School in 1432, and it鈥檚 the only school he has anything to do with, and Jack Cave before they behead him on stage says you are condemned for corrupting the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school, so that has been researched and well is obviously Sevenoaks School,it was found out,it is the only school.

Anyhow, I was taking a scholarship to Cambridge called The Tankred Scholarship, King Tankred of Sicily was the Norman King of Sicily in 1065/66, and of course they went both ways the Normans didn鈥檛 they, they went to Sicily and England, William came here, went both ways. And he鈥檇 been worried, this Norman Tankred was English by now in the sixteenth century that scientists were becoming too specialized at a young age, this scholarship had to take in history, classics, something else, in order to read a science, so I never used it because the war came, and I didn鈥檛 want to spend the next 18 months studying medicine.
And I remained a medical student during the war because I was actually a 鈥淏evin Boy鈥� (do you know the Bevin Boys?)

Neville Usher: Yes

Dr. Michael Coigley: And the only way I could get out of going down the mines was to remain a medical student which I did so I was at St. Thomas鈥檚 during most of the war; we were evacuated of course down to Surrey, and then we came back to very difficult things at St. Thomas鈥檚. And I then met 鈥�, I met Sylvia my wife whilst I was there, I then went in the army after I had been qualified for two years and went out east, thinking we were going to have a nice time but spent two years trekking through the jungle after the ruddy bandits.

Neville Usher: Oh dear, in Burma, or 鈥�?

Dr. Michael Coigley: No, Malaya, Malaya, it was after the war you see, it was 鈥�48, the Malaya emergency started in June 鈥�48. And then I came back and did a few jobs and wondered what to do, and then Scot Trick who was a partner - do you remember Scot Trick, old Trick? Well Scot Trick who was a partner in the Bridge House practice, the senior partners being Harold Girling, Dudley Marks and Scot Trick, Offley Evans and etc. And he had a very bad coronary on New Year鈥檚 day 1954 and for some reason, I can never know why and he wasn鈥檛 quite sure, the secretary of the medical school from St. Thomas鈥檚 rang me and said (because Dudley Marks was a St. Thomas鈥檚 man), and he was a local surgeon, he was a senior surgeon, South Warwickshire, one of the old GP surgeons you know, and he had rung the medical school saying do you know anybody who wants a job quick? So he rang me and said there鈥檚 a job going up there if you鈥檙e interested, and I said well I don鈥檛 know really, I wanted to be a cardiologist at the time, and I was working in the hospital you see, senior registrar in the hospital in Chichester, and Sylvia鈥檚 mother was dying of alchziemers just outside Leominster where they lived, Herefordshire, and we were going backwards and forwards and so I rang 鈥榚m up, going up the next weekend, and came for the interview on Saturday morning with Harold Girling and Dudley Marks, and Offley was there, and out of interest and that was that, and the following Sunday Harold Girling rang me up and said when can you start? Well I had sort of dismissed it from my mind really and we had to think very deeply about this because I had this job, I had to get a release etc. from it, but with my mother in law being so ill, deep in the country, and Sylvia going backwards and forward all the while, so we decided if I could get released I would take it, although I could go back to the hospital you know after a couple of years, anyhow I never went back to the hospital because I liked it so much here, and it鈥檚 been great, so that鈥檚 how I got to Stratford.

Neville Usher: And what about the Second World War, what did you 鈥�?

Dr. Michael Coigley: Well I was in dad鈥檚 army of course, and my father who was auctioneer, chartered surveyor, estate agent etc. in Kensington in London (his business of course went), so he took a job doing war damage survey work covering over all the East End bombs and everything, and he鈥檇 been in the trenches in the 鈥�14/18 war of course my dad, and 鈥淭he Lion鈥� kept getting bombed, and so they moved, everybody was being evacuated, they moved further into London, they moved into Chislehurst, and at that moment I had got a place in medical school, and I well remember the interview I had for medical school because I went up with my father and I saw a very famous chap Thompson, Big Bill Thompson who was then at medical school a famous chap, and we went to see Chu Chinn Chow at the Palace Theatre that night, and there was a hell of an air raid, we weren鈥檛 allowed out of the theatre (we got out about three o鈥檆lock/four o鈥檆lock in the morning at the end), and being entertained by the cast marvellously all night you know, and got home to find there was a telegram to say that I had got a place in the medical school.

And neighbours at Chislehurst, and the Home Guard headquarters was next door to us actually at Chislehurst, and I was in that, but then the medical school were evacuated to Surrey, and it was a military hospital that had been built at Guildford, outside Guildford, and they took that over 鈥榗os Thomas鈥檚 was bombed quite badly, and about the only hospital really 鈥�, but they were after the Houses of Parliament of course which is the other side of the river, right opposite, and so there I was and I qualified at the end of 鈥�46, and took my degree in March 鈥�47.

But during that time you know, Chislehurst was right on the 鈥�, whenever I was at home I had to get up every night to firewatch on the roof and that sort of thing 鈥榗os you had got incendiaries all round you, you know, and funnily enough yesterday I went to see the Orpen, William Orpen exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, it is a brilliant exhibition and I was just walking out and there was a chap and his teenage son, and he can鈥檛 have been more than, I should think he was forty, something like that, they were looking at the V1 and the V2, doodlebug, and the V2 and I heard him say 鈥�, I just stopped to have a look and he said to his son, of course that was the V1 and that was the V2 big rocket, and he turned to me and he said 鈥渁m I right鈥�? He had diagnosed me brilliantly! Am I right? And I said yes you are absolutely right, and I can tell you about the very first V2 which dropped on this country, it dropped at Petts Wood and my mum was just doing the washing up in their top flat in Chislehurst and she got the cutlery, the crockery, she got the crockery together on the sink, on the drainer, and she took some of it to put in the cupboard along the wall and as she did that there was a hell of a bang and the window over the sink came straight past her and pretty well hit the wall, and that was the first; and nobody knew what it was of course. We had had the V1s of course, the put, put puts!

Neville Usher: But they couldn鈥檛 pick it up with radar or shoot it down, it was so fast?

Dr. Michael Coigley: No, a rocket. But I tell you a story about the V1s, because they had this ram jet engine, they went 鈥減ut, put, put鈥� they came on, when it cut out you knew it had gone somewhere, and they used to sort of hear the wind whistle when they came down, and I came off Home Guard duty early one morning, and I thought oh I just popped in home, took my uniform off though it鈥檚 not worth doing anything, I鈥檒l go to bed, and went down to the station, caught an early train, went into the students鈥� club at St. Thomas鈥檚, saw a chap called Dempster there, arrived at the same time (a very good fly half he was by the way, died about two years ago), and we said let鈥檚 have a game of snooker. So we went into the billiard room and we were having a 鈥�, and we heard put, put, put, we heard this V1 approaching, we looked out of the window and it was coming actually straight for us in the club. We looked at each other, we got under the billiard table and shook hands and nothing happened, nothing happened, we hard it whistle past, an air current took it up and it went along York Road and it dropped on a siding of Waterloo Station and that caused some trouble because it hit a tanker which had some phosphorous substance in it, took the top off a bus, killed a lot of people, and we all rushed over to casualty, and police came in and somebody had discovered this phosphorous liquid stuff in this tanker, and it鈥檚 a devil if you don鈥檛 get it off the skin, and it鈥檚 undetected you can see it, so we got the books down, and it鈥檚 very simple, you make a solution of copper sulphate like you used for bathing, wash it over it goes black, and you can see it, otherwise it goes on boring if you don鈥檛.
But there were so many experiences during the war. I was on duty the Sunday morning in casualty that the doodlebug fell on the Guards Chapel, that was carnage that was terrible, and we had all the casualties in from that and I can see a Guards Sergeant Major, and funnily enough I served with The Guards out in Malaya later, and being lead up the ramp to casualty with a guardsman in his arms, all of them just covered in blood and god knows what and his face shattered, he couldn鈥檛 see and yet he had another guardsman in his arms, he was 6鈥�2鈥� or so the Sergeant Major, and another guardsman you know, I thought you know these chaps are marvellous.

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