Passports and Booklets: Papers of Zoe Josephs

Photograph of the cover of an Identification Card [MS 2524/1/B/2/2]

My first encounter with eGate was on a recent trip from Heathrow. Installed to speed up border crossings, these self-service machines come with easy-to-follow instructions. Place your passport on the scanner and wait for a bright green tick to appear. However, despite my best efforts I was unable to secure a boarding pass. I kept shuffling the passport, pressing it firmly and repeating the whole process. Another woman next to me faced a similar ordeal. We groaned, exchanged grievances and waited for ‘human intervention.’ Staff around us were already busy sorting requests from passengers queued in front of the ‘seek assistance,’ counter. Finally help arrived and we were able to reach our gates. Once I was settled 33,000 feet above sea level on the airplane, I acknowledged the privileges of having a passport. It is a document that verifies one’s identity before taking-off to overseas destinations. In our ever-changing world we travel across the globe in just a few days.

A Community Remembers

At this time of year, we are encouraged to step back from our busy lives and take a moment to remember those who have gone before, those who gave their lives so we could have the lives we have today. Many of their stories have been lost to history, remembered only by a few. For this blog post, I have chosen to focus on a project undertaken by Shades of Black Community Project which aimed to encourage the local community to remember.

Shades of Black was begun in the aftermath of the Handsworth Riots, by Mrs McGhie-Belgrave MBE and four other women, with the aim of enhancing the life skills of the community and encouraging rebuilding and reconciliation. In 2007 the group succeeded in obtaining National Lottery Heritage Funding for the ‘Commonwealth World War I and World War II Veterans Research Project’ (MS 2855).

List of shrapnel found in gardens in Handsworth and Stechford [Ref. MS 2855 Addnl (Acc: 2010/067) Box 1]

Participants involved in the project included teachers and children from local schools in the area including Stechford, Wilkes Green, Wattville and Foundry Primary Schools, as well as secondary school pupils from Handsworth Wood Girls School, and local community volunteers and local historians.

The Diary of Anne Frank

This year marks the 75^th anniversary since the first publication of The Diary of Anne Frank. As a child, I was given a copy of the book by my grandmother, and despite it falling apart, it’s not only still one of my most treasured possessions, but it also inspired my love of 20^th century history, and, put simply, to try and understand war – something that should be unnecessary in a civilised society yet all too often is the first resort, not the last.

Front cover of the 1954 edition of The Diary of a Young Girl, author’s own copy.

The Birmingham Book of Remembrance Office, 1948-9

While 11 November marks the end of the hostilities of World War One, it is also the day on which we remember members of the British armed services who have lost their lives in military conflicts since that time. This year’s Remembrance Day blog post looks at efforts undertaken by Birmingham City Council in the years after the Second World War to ensure that the city’s citizens who lost their lives during that conflict were remembered for posterity.

At a meeting of the War Memorial Committee in April 1946, the Lord Mayor, Alderman Albert Bradbeer J.P., suggested that members discussed whether there should be a Roll of Honour compiled for those who had died in the recent war, as had been the case at the end of the First World War with the ‘Record of the Fallen in the 1914-18 War’, which was in the Hall of Memory. The meeting resolved that,

‘…it be a recommendation to the General Purposes Committee that authority should be given for the preparation of a Roll of Honour to contain the names of those Birmingham citizens who were killed during the 1939-1945 war whilst serving in H.M. Forces including the Auxiliary Forces, the Merchant Navy and Civil Defence Units and civilians who lost their lives as the result of enemy action, the names to recorded in alphabetical order.‘

[FN: BCC/1/AG/37/1/13]

The General Purposes Committee approved the creation of a Book of Remembrance in February 1947. Compilation of the book was to be undertaken by H.M. Cashmore, previously the City’s Chief Librarian, with help from two members of staff, at the Birmingham Book of Remembrance Office. Established on 29^th June 1948, this was located on 2-4 Edmund Street and was opened to the public on 1^st July 1948.

In Memory of Remembrance

This Remembrance Day blog is our opportunity to show you a sample of the types of records you can find in our collections concerning memorials, or past services of remembrance.

 

The below items feature the names of the people who raised funds for a memorial at Christ Church, Sparkbrook, and a list of the names which were to be included on the memorial and how they were to be remembered.

List of names for the War Memorial and Memorial Chapel. [EP 3/9/2/1/1]

This next item is a faculty for St. Luke’s, Birmingham, dated 17^th November 1921, concerning the erection of a war memorial. Faculties are documents that must be submitted to the local diocese to ask for permission to make physical changes to a church.

This one reads ‘[…]by the Petition of you the said Vicar and Churchwardens that it is proposed to place at the West end of the Church of St. Luke, Birmingham aforesaid as a Memorial to all from the Parish who fell in the Great War a Tablet constructed of Brass with an inscription thereon already approved[..]’

Celebrating VE Day

The 8^th of May 2020 marks the 75^th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE Day).

Street party to celebrate Allied victory in Europe, Ward End, Birmingham [WK/W2/87 ]

The allied defeat of Nazi Germany led to celebrations across the country, and many of these were street parties. One of those street parties held in Birmingham took place in Ward End, and the above image is from our wonderful Warwickshire Photographic Survey collection [MS 2724], which you can access online here.

Whilst we’re unable to celebrate this historic moment with any kind of gathering, we will be turning the Library of Birmingham red, white and blue, and you can take part in a variety of online activities. For example, https://www.veday75.org/ are inviting everyone to the “‘Nation’s Toast to the Heroes of WW2’ at 3pm on the 8th May, from the safety of their own home by standing up and raise a glass of refreshment of their choice”. And, with the BBC, you can make your own special VE Day 75 ‘Great British Bunting’ to display in your window at home! You can download everything you need here to make your Great British Bunting.

100th Anniversary of the RAF

Royal Air Force Birmingham wireless telegrapher appeal, a recruitment appeal for ‘Young Men, 17 1/2 years and upwards’(MS 2966/3/1).

The 1^st of April 2018 marks the 100^th Anniversary of the Royal Air Force (RAF), when the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps merged to become the first independent airforce in the world, following the passing of the Air Force (Constitution Act) 1917.  In this week’s blog post, I thought I’d take a look at some of the varied sources we hold here in Archives & Collections at the Library of Birmingham, relating to the RAF.

To start with, some of the earliest material I found comes from a collection called ‘Circulars relating to recruitment, fund raising and coal rationing from the First World War, 1917-1919’ (MS2966).  These circulars were sent from various sources to the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham for the purpose of supporting the war effort.  It is likely that they were displayed in a number of Birmingham’s Catholic churches. You can see some examples of these in the image at the top of this blog post and below.

Birmingham Royal Air Force recruitment appeal to the men of Birmingham to keep up the bombing campaign against Germany by volunteering at the RAF Reception Depot, Paradise Street, 1918 (MS 2966/3/2)