George’s funeral was on 7th January 1909, and the Coventry Herald reported:
The works of the Singer Cycle Company Ltd. were closed during the morning and this enabled hundreds of Singer's workers to line the route of the funeral cortege. The grave was lined with asparagus and maiden-hair fern with white chrysanthemums. The great and famous bells of St. Michael's Church in the centre of the city tolled during the funeral in sombre time to the passage of the carriages and the service at the graveside."
George Singer was also three times Mayor of Coventry, and it was particularly good to be joined by the present Deputy Lord Mayor, Jack Harrison MBE, JP, and his wife Jill, who somehow managed to avoid the cameras!
The day started as members of ASCO and the SOC, together with our guests, boarded a historic bus from the Coventry Transport Museum, to be driven to the London Road cemetery where George and his wife Eliza are buried.
George Singer was very keen to promote the well-being of his employees, and actively encouraged sporting activities, one of these being the Singers Football Team, so we were also pleased to welcome Ian Devoy (below, right), who is great-great-grandson of Willy Stanley, one of the founder members, a player/striker and the first Manager of the Singers team, that was later to become the Coventry City Football Club, together with Lionel Bird, who is currently researching the history of the club, including, of course, its Singer roots.