Alfred Robert Grindlay

Grindlay was born in Coventry, England, in 1876, the fifth child of nine and second son of William Vaughan Grindlay (1843–1891), into a line of established engineers and horological master craftsmen. He was orphaned while still a teenager, when first his mother, Mary Ann, died in December 1890, and then his father only a year later in December 1891. Upon leaving school, Grindlay joined a local cycle firm and began learning the skills he would employ later in his career.

During his youth he was an able football player and regular midfielder for Foleshill Great Heath Football Club. He captained the side during their most successful period, including the 1898–99 season when he was one of the top goal scorers and the club won the Midland Daily Telegraph Association Football Challenge Cup, Foleshill Nursing Association Cup, and the Nuneaton Cottage Hospital Cup.

At the age of 20, Grindlay married Emma Chaplin in St Paul's Church, Coventry on 7 September 1896, and started his family in 1899, aged 23, when the first of his two sons, Reginald Robert Grindlay, was born.[a]

By 1901, Grindlay was working at Riley Cycle Company, one of the major firms in Coventry at that time. He progressed steadily within the company, until 1910, when while working as a foreman at Riley Cycle Company, he applied for a patent (24,683) regarding "improved means for carrying spare wheels" for motorcars. That same year Grindlay left Riley Cycle Company and took over the Coventry Motor & Sundries business, establishing Grindlay Sidecars, which became known for its "extremely high quality" machines.

In 1918, he established Grindlay Company or Grindlay (Coventry) Ltd, which focused on coachwork for cars and later the manufacture of the Grindlay Spring-Wheel Sidecar which he himself designed.

Grindlay was a keen sportsman and prominent figure in the Coventry sporting world, remaining involved with various clubs and associations throughout his life. His love of amateur football, beginning with his playing for Foleshill Great Heath Football Club in his youth, was a passion shared by his wife, Emma, and which culminated in his becoming vice-president of Coventry City Football Club. He was also chairman of Coventry and Warwickshire Motor Club, vice-president of Coventry Cricket Club, and a member the Coventry Hearsall and Coventry Golf Clubs.

A committed philanthropist, in his role as chairman of the Coventry Hospital Carnival Committee, Grindlay oversaw the organisation of 16 carnivals and 2 "Godiva" processions that raised more than £60,000 for the hospital, attracting visitors from around the world and to wide public acclaim, before it was eventually taken over by the government. 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. He also contributed to the hospital by sitting on both its General and House Committees. In addition to his works with the city council, Grindlay was a Freemason like many of the wider Grindlay family, and contributed to many charities and philanthropic projects through his membership of the Trinity Lodge and Trinity Royal Arch Chapter."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." – Coventry Evening Telegraph, 1940Grindlay was a Methodist and while living in Foleshill, was an active member of the Free Methodist Church on Station Street West, formerly Carpenter's Lane, and held all of the posts that were open to laymen. In his later years he went on to become the President of the Coventry and District Free Church Council.

In 1941, William Michael Maddocks, son of Sir Henry Maddocks, asked Grindlay to write the foreword to his commemorative novel, The City We Loved – Coventry, published in 1942, which details the story of the destruction of Coventry's medieval centre by the 1940 and 1941 blitzkrieg campaigns of Nazi Germany.