On This Day, 19 October 1918

Birmingham Mail 

Saturday 19 October 1918

Americans in Birmingham.

There are, I am told, representatives of practically every country which is fighting for the Allied cause in one or other of the Birmingham hospitals or convalescent homes. There are French and Belgians, Italians and Serbians, and during the past fortnight there have been substantial arrivals of disabled Americans. The last-named are probably now in the majority, apart, of course, from our own English and Colonial Tommies. The Rotary Club’s system for the entertainment in private houses of the men from the States is meeting with considerable success. Already over 200 men have been received in the homes of public-spirited folk in Edgbaston, Moseley, and other suburbs, and this number is likely each week to be materially increased. I hear, too, that in some localities, in the vicinity of the hospitals, arrangements are made at regular intervals for the entertainment at local institutes of our American fighting cousins who are allowed out of hospital for a continuous period. The good work is undertaken either by suburban organisations or by little coteries of friends, and for a comparatively small expenditure an infinite amount of pleasure is given to large bodies of these men who are so far removed from their homes. Their expressions of appreciation are well worth the little trouble and expense involved.