[8] Throughout WWII, Grindlay was Commandant of the Coventry Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) in charge of all associated civil fire-fighting procedures, training, and emergency response operations.

Support for the war effort expanded to include the development of pitch propellers, barrage balloons, aircraft fuselages and control gear.

[12] Formed in 1923, Grindlay Peerless, which operated out of Melbourne Works on Shakleton Road in Spon End, Coventry, entered into the wider motorcycle market in the early 1920s, and began making high-powered racing machines.

Like the Grindlay Sidecars before them, they employed numerous technological advances and innovative engineering, which included utilising early aircraft design features.

[11][15] CWG 'Bill' Lacey became the first man to exceed a 100 miles in an hour on British soil in August 1928 aboard his modified 498cc Grindlay Peerless.

[16][17] The bike covered 103.3 miles in the hour at Brooklands racing circuit in Surrey to secure a Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) world record.

In 1929, Bill Lacey broke the record again on his Grindlay Peerless, by covering 105.87 miles in the hour at Autodrome de Linasc-Montlhéry, Montlhéry, in France.

A symbol of Coventry’s regeneration following the bombardment of WWII, he laid the mortar for the ceremonial placement of the stone, and his name and office form part of the surrounding inscription.

[26] Grindlay was a keen sportsman and prominent figure in the Coventry sporting world, remaining involved with various clubs and associations throughout his life.

[19] It was at one of these processions that his second son, Alfred Stephen Chaplin Grindlay, would meet his future wife, Frances Phyllis Burchell, who as an accomplished horse rider played the role of Lady Godiva.

[8][19]"Few public men have had a busier life than Mr. Grindlay, the ramifications of whose work embrace practically every phase of civic, social, business, sporting and philanthropic activity.

[22][31] Three years later in 1946 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his service to the nation and personally commended for his efforts by King George VI.

[2][3] On 1 July 1965, Coventry City Council announced that a redevelopment in Windsor Street, Spon End was to be named Grindlay House in his honour.