Recent content by Rowland

I have recently been in touch with the PPU myself, and I understand that no enquiry has ever been received fitting the description of a WW1 CO from Birmingham connected with either Carrs Lane Church or the Wesleyan Methodists. This seems a great pity, as the PPU CO database includes over 4000...

I wonder whether you saw in the other WW1 CO thread the detailed reply Clive Davenport received from the PPU regarding his grandfather as a WW1 CO, and whether you have received an equally interesting response. I am sure that the descendants of the still well-remembered Leyton Richards, Minister...

Although the last executions in Britain were carried out in August 1964 (for murder) and the death penalty for murder was abolished in England and Wales in December 1965, capital punishment for other offences in the UK was not finally abolished until 9 November 1998, and was not made irrevocable...

I wonder whether SRWALW has seen the very full reply Chrs Davenport had from the Archivist of the Peace Pledge concerning his grandfather, who was a WW1 conscientious objector. It could well be worthwhile contacting the Archivist ([email protected]) about Harry Payne.

It is actually known as Magdalen Court, reflecting its original name, but Hope Lodge is the name by which it was more generally known. The Health Authority sold the building c 2003, and it was developed as apartments by Redrow Homes.

There is actually a Birmingham connection to this point, and I should have made it earlier. Neville Chamberlain, as Lord Mayor in WW1, sat on the Birmingham Tribunal, and realised later how badly things had been handled. When, as Prime Minister, he re-introduced conscription in May 1939, he made...

Thanks, Paul, for your comment. It is, however, important to remember a significant difference between the WW1 CO situation in Britain, on the one hand, and in France and Germany, on the other hand. France and Germany had no pretence of recognising conscientious objection and COs were dealt with...

Bingo! Sorry, your Baptist granddad would probably have frowned on even such a mild form of gambling as bingo. More seriously, this reply is even more thorough than I thought it might be when I suggested contacting the PPU. I especially liked the idea that your grandfather has been sitting in...

Yes, your grandfather, Albert E Davenport, was in the Home Office Work Centre, Princetown, Devon, based in the former and later Dartmoor Prison. He is commemorated in the Roll of Honour of the Birmingham Branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, published c 1917, and held in the Birmingham...

Harry Payne was clearly a conscientious objector to military service in WW1. I imagine the booklet makes it clear that the sentence was 116 days hard labour (actually I wonder whether it was really 112 days, the conventional first sentence in such cases), given after court-martial, probably in 1916.

By 1948 (Kelly's Directory) they appeared to be running two parallel shoe repairing businesses: Harry H Payne, with head office at 65 Longmore Street, Balsall Heath, Birmingham 12, had some 30 branches all over the city. W R Payne (Shoecraft) Ltd had shops at 740 Bristol Road and 19 Oak...

Institute Road Junior and Infants School, Institute Road (northern corner with High Street), King's Heath. This was an early Board School, c 1880. By the 1930s it was deemed no longer fit for purpose, and Wheelers Lane J&I was built to replace it, from January 1939. The site was scheduled to...

Institute Road Junior and Infants School, Institute Road (northern corner with High Street), King's Heath. This was an early Board School, c 1880. By the 1930s it was deemed no longer fit for purpose, and Wheelers Lane J&I was built to replace it, from January 1939. The site was scheduled to...

J S Flavell was almost certainly the original headmaster when the school opened in January 1939; he was still there in the early 1950s. His son, Peter Flavell, was a pupil at the school in the mid 1940s. Other teachers in the 1940s were Miss Moyle (who left to become head of another Birmingham...

Wheelers Lane Secondary Modern was originally built in 1938/39 as Wheelers Lane Senior School. It suffered some bomb damage during WW2, when a landmine was dropped in Wheelers Lane, killing some residents, but as it was night-time no-one in the school was hurt. The school was repaired and...