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Birchfield Harriers WW1 memorial plaque

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Does anyone have any information on the whereabouts of the memorial plaque which used to hang in the clubroom of the old Birchfield Harriers stadium ? Heritage Lottery funding has been secured to recreate the plaque listing 253 harriers who took part in WW1. The plaque was rescued from the original stadium when the Harriers moved to their current site. It was claimed to have hung on someone's garage, but little more is known about it. Fuller details of the project below. But if you have any info or details of harriers who may have been named on the plaque contact [email protected].

https://birchfieldharrierssportingtales.com/running-between-the-lines/

Viv.
 
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oh dear viv fancy losing the plaque...do hope they find it as it would be great to see it in its rightful place

lyn
 
That is a pity, odds on this is in somebody's home, garage or collection. Perhaps some publicity might see it returned to its rightful place

Steve R
 
Don't know how much publicity this has had so far Steve, but maybe advertising is part of the project. I've not heard about the work that's been done to date on the life stories of these men. It's possible they may find someone has done some work on the men via the IWM Lives of WW1 project. I'll email the contact Paul Stuart and pass on any pointers/views/comments about the Birchfield Harriers project.


We can certainly hope Lyn. Look at how it all turned out on the Erdington postmem plaque. Viv.
 
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Yep have to agree, I only read that thread a few days ago. A magnificent effort by all involved I must say. Well worth a read if you have seen it.

Steve R
 
Hi Viv
If memory servers me correctly there is a framed copy of the Birchfield Harriers WW1 Roll of Honour in their office at the Alexander Stadium.

Tony
 
Thanks Tony. I'll pass that on to the project. I expect they'll know but will mention it anyway. I'll also give them the link to this thread in case any members have anything else to add. Viv.
 
On behalf of Birchfield Harriers I'd like to thanks you all for your help in this. Here's a few more details. The original plaque was probably bronze and stood about 36" high. It was donated by G H Alexander, a member of the family of WW Alexander, after whom the stadium is named. Two members of the Alexander family are named on the Plaque; both survived the war. It originally hung in the old Birchfield Alexander Stadium (now the greyhound track). When the club moved in the 1970's it was taken down and transferred to the new stadium, but never put back up. After that, no-one has a complete memory of what happened. Some remember a club member saying that they would take it home for safe keeping, but no-one remembers who it was.
The reason we have the photo of it, which is framed in the club committee room, is because the then club archivist, Wilf Morgan, found a photo of it when it had been lined up with club trophies for a display. Fortunately the photo was of good enough quality to be enlarged so that the names can be read. We have been working on research on the names for a couple of years, in between researching the constant flow of queries that come into the club from ex-members and their families, but when the Lives of WW1 website went live, this gelled into the idea of re-uniting the WW1 members together as a group on that site. That was when we realised we'd need some extra time and funds to achieve this.
We already have more information about these individuals than is currently on the website as we like to verify as much of it as possible before putting it on display, but more will be visible soon. An appeal by Wilf some years ago in the local press brought no news of the original plaque, but we live in hope.
Here's the account of how much it meant to club members in the 1920's (taken from the club report at the opening of the Alexander Grounds in 1929) " At the Annual lMeeting on October 16th, 1919, the ROLL OF HONOUR, the gift of Vice-President G H Alexander, was on view and was very gratefully accepted on behalf of the Club by the President Ald. T H Cartwright, J.P., and to-day this is one of the Club's most prized possessions and will occupy pride of place eventually our home when we are able to erect it. At a Social held in January, 1920, when a presentation was made to Lance-Corporal A Wilcox, V.C., the Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Birmingham (Dr Russell Wakefield) dedicated the Roll of Honour "To the Glory of God and in memory of men who did their duty to King and Country"
If you're interested in the club's history there is a permanent exhibition of some key characters and athletes on the first floor of the current stadium. It is signposted up the stairs from the stadium reception area (not the Harriers entrance). It is free. Some of this exhibition has now been borrowed 3 times by British Athletics for their "Icon" tent at major meetings, most recently a few weeks ago at the Olympic Stadium in London. We also have a lot of artefacts that we bring out for exhibitions, but these are not in the free display. We hope to add more pictures and histories soon to the permanent exhibition and hope to take some of our history banners and artefacts to Handsworth Town Hall in September. We can host group history meetings if you have a group that would like to visit and see more. these can be arranged through Stuart Paul.
If you have any more information or queries on any Birchfield Harrier please get in touch and we'll do our best to help.
Thanks for reading
 
Hello
I have just had a look at the Website and can see a lot of work is being done. So many names of so many brave you men, you are making a valuable contribution to keeping there memories alive. I am a frequent visitor to the Somme battlefield and occasionally Belgium and if you require any photographs of grave or memorials send me a private message and I will see what I can do.
 
Thanks Steve R, we will let you know. Last year the road-running group from the club ran a relay to visit some of the Belgian memorials where some of these men are commemorated, but we've by no means found them all yet. Readers of this forum will know that the grave of Alfred Wilcox, who won the VC and survived the war is in the churchyard at Aston church. His originally un-marked grave was finally given a gravestone a few years ago.
 
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Hi Ruth. Thank you for telling us more about the plaque and the project. Seems like a lot is being achieved. We appreciate how much work it involves too. And look forward to hearing how it progresses. Regards Viv. [/FONT]
 
Thanks for the link Ray. It would also be great if anyone with a family connection or personal interest from BHF could get in touch with you too. Just wondering if any of the lives of these men has been 'remembered' on the IWM Lives of WW1 site? Could save you some legwork (apologies if you've already looked or are looking at that). Good to see a project like this getting underway. Regards Viv.
 
We've now moved the WW1 research to a new website at https://archive.birchfieldharriers.com where we'll be putting up all future research too. We are having a seminar on athletics in the W Midlands during WW1 in January and I'll post the link to sign up for that soon. As part of the project we've also held a successful art competition, a retro sports day and two quiz nights and there will be more activities to come.
In the mean time we would love to find out more about Francis J Wright (Frank Wright) a Birchfield member from the early part of the 20th century, born in 1883, By 1913 he had been appointed as a trainer for athletes in the Midlands preparing for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin, which never happened. He later travelled with British Olympic teams until the late 1930's. He apparently owned a chiropody practice in Birmingham, which included a branch in New St which was bombed during WW2. In 1925, following the death of his wife, Leah, he presented the club with its most valuable trophy, which has since been awarded to many famous athletes. In 1891 he was living with his parents in Clarke St, Birmingham and in the 1939 census he was living at 71 Tennant St Birmingham. He died in 1960 at 1 Western Rd, and at that point there is also an address in the occupation box of 2 back 28 Tennant St. It's not clear if that was his business premises. Frank Wright's name appears on the WW1 memorial plaque and his importance to the club over so many years means that we would love to know more about him. His death was registered by his niece who lived in Stirchley/Cotteridge area so we don't know if he had any closer family
 
The online electoral roll does not list every year, but Francis Wright is listed at :
47 Westbury Road in 1920-1930
1 back 71 Tennant St from 1935 - 1939, and at back of 71 from 1945-55 (probably same house)
In 1935 he is also listed at 3 New St (presumably his work address)
I Western road was the hospital.
 
Thanks Mikejee, I did think that maybe Western Rd denoted the hospital. Yes, 3 New Street is where the chiropodist's is listed in Kelly's directory. I thought I had found that he and Leah (nee Turner) had had a family before she died, but the fact that a niece registered his death makes me think that it may not be so. There was another probable Wright/Turner marriage in Birmingham a few years before Frank and Leah married, so without sending for birth certificates it's hard to know whose children were born between 1916 and 1925. Leah died of a stroke secondary to atrial fibrillation, which sounds as though she may have had mitral valve disease after rheumatic fever, so maybe did not have children.
It would have been lovely to find someone from his family, but they were quite extensive as there were several older siblings who probably stayed behind in Worcestershire when Frank's father and mother moved the younger members of the family to Birmingham.
We have some recordings, made in the 1980's, of several club members from his era who remember him with gratitude for the attention he gave them. He's remembered, and shown on photos, as a very dapper man who always had a flower in his button hole. He used to rub the athletes down with various potions and also used to help them look after their feet. They trained in plimsolls for running or boots for walking and ran in spikes far more primitive than the models you see today, so their feet took a hammering.
Frank Wright is the chap in a polo neck jumper in the centre of the photo on this page https://archive.birchfieldharriers.com/archives/world-war-i/#athletes
 
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