Pearl Hyde

Pearl Marguerite Hyde MBE (17 June 1904–1963, née Bigby) was an English local Labour politician and the first female Lord Mayor of Coventry.

[7] She also visited Toronto in Canada, where she toured Ontario Hydro[8] and met the United States Consul in the Umbrella Club, Birmingham, as part of 'America Week'.

'[12] Hyde was leader of Coventry's Women's Voluntary Services, based at Drapers' Hall on Bailey Lane, during World War II, and afterwards until 1958.

Her work involved providing sustenance through mobile canteens or restaurants, distributing clothing and Red Cross parcels, organising accommodation for foreign servicemen and people stranded in the city, sewing and visiting air raid shelters.

[13] She ran her 'Devil's Kitchen' from an underground room in the Coventry Central Police Station to provide free food in the city[14] and even learnt to drive an ambulance when volunteer drivers were needed.

'[15] In 1941, Hyde appeared in Humphrey Jennings' documentary The Heart of Britain,[1] saying: "You know you feel such fools standing there in a crater with a mug of tea —seeing men bringing out bodies.

[14] She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services during the Coventry Blitz of 1940 and received a diploma from Charles De Gaulle in 1949 for her war work.

[25] In October 2023 Hyde was featured in the last episode of Jay Blades' channel 5 TV show The Midlands Through Time, with her life story told by historian Dr Sarah Louise Miller during an interview in the Old Cathedral ruins.