Right from the start of the Birmingham Children of War Project it was apparent that one of the obvious gaps in the material we were looking through was the voices of children themselves. There are occasional glimpses in a couple of childhood reminiscences recorded later in life. And also in a few published letters in newspapers and essays in school magazines but these were written and selected for a (mainly) patriotic purpose.
But letters written by children and teenagers to absent fathers, diaries and scrapbooks or even photographs of Birmingham children (other than in institutional or organisational settings) during the WWI years are significant by their absence.
We are hoping that such material may still be found amongst people’s own family archives, lurking in boxes kept in the attic or the back of a wardrobe. Do you have such items? And would you be willing to share them with the project?
Ahead of a possible public appeal we are asking FoBAH members to search their family papers for any items concerning childhood (Babies to 17 yr olds) that we can photograph, scan or possibly even accession as part of the project archives. All copies or gifted originals will be deposited with Birmingham Archives and Heritage and so be available to future researchers. If you have something of possible interest please email Liz Palmer at FoBAH@outlook.com