Blitz surviving lovebirds mark 72nd anniversary

Ninety-five-year-old Len Dacombe and his wife Cis, 96, were given an “amazing” surprise by their friends on their anniversary last Friday when they turned up at their usual senior citizens’ social club at the Spa Centre in Leamington.

Mr Dacombe, who survived the Coventry Blitz in 1940 despite being close to three bombs, said: “When we got there, we were very surprised to see a table absolutely full of groceries, plants and flowers for us. I was amazed, I really was.”

It was being paired up by Mr Patterson of the Patterson School of Dancing in Coventry in 1934 that first got the couple together - and, 79 years down the line, no one can deny that the match proved to be made in heaven.

The young Mr Dacombe was working night shifts as a tool setter for Coventry Climax Engines. He stepped up to volunteer to be on fire watch on the night the city was bombed in November 1940, so he had stayed in the factory while his colleagues went into an air-raid shelter.

He said: “The first five bombs exploded, then the sixth one hit the concrete where I was, but it did not explode. Another two came very close to me. I was very lucky to survive.”

Soon after that, Mr Dacombe’s manager asked him if he would move to Oswestry to work at a new factory there. He said: “I told him that I had a young lady who I would like to ask to marry me, so I would need to ask here if she would come to Oswestry.”

After having “a think about it”, the young lady asked her mother if she would be happy for her to leave with her husband-to-be and, after being given the go-ahead, the couple were married on February 8 1941. But because she was working at the First Aid post in Coventry, Mrs Dacombe did not immediately go to Oswestry. Mr Dacombe said: “She was there during the Easter Blitzes, so I came back on the Friday after that and took her to Oswestry with me.”

After 14 years, Mr Dacombe got a job at Lockheed in Leamington and in 1956, the couple moved into their home in Lonsdale Road in Lillington, where they still live today.

The grandparents-of-six and great-grandparents of seven have been actively involved in their senior citizens social club for 30 years, with Mr Dacombe having been chairman since it started in 1982. He said: “I had a little break to have my leg amputated in 2004, but then I returned and I am still chairman and president as well.”

“It helps me. I am still quite active.”