On This Day, 25 May 1917

Birmingham Daily Gazette

Friday 25 May 1917

WAR MUSEUM.

SCHEME FOR A BIRMINGHAM MEMORIAL

The appointment of Sir Whitworth Wallis, keeper of the Birmingham Art Gallery, to an executive officership of the association formed to inaugurate a scheme for establishing war museums in the towns and cities of the country is a guarantee that Birmingham’s part the movement will be enthusiastically and efficiently taken up.

The idea and hope that the museum will provide a permanent and fascinating record not only of the deeds of Warwickshire lads at the front but the work of the city munitioneers and every phase of war work, including that done by women on voluntary lines. It will be a museum which for many who visit it will have a personal interest, through the part played by relatives or friends in the events and incidents it commemorates.

Thousands of war badges and many other souvenirs have been turned out in Birmingham, and it is hoped to secure for this “Hall of Memory” specimens of each and every article made locally, including models or photographs of all munitions of war. Various local committees to superintend the collection of souvenirs and trophies, collect artistic specimens and literature, and do other things necessary to make the museum a complete mirror of Birmingham’s great war record, will be formed after Sir Whitworth Wallis has talked the matter over with the Lord Mayor. A new building may eventually be required, but the cost of that would be small compared with the permanent value and interest of the war museum. The question of forming a war museum in Walsall has been referred to the committee of the Town Council.