Project: Birmingham Children at War

Heritage Lottery Fund awards £10k to Friends of Birmingham Archives and Heritage to mark First World War Centenary

Friends of Birmingham Archives and Heritage has received nearly £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a project, Birmingham Children of War. Awarded through HLF’s First World War: then and now programme, the project will focus on experiences of children growing up or being born in Birmingham during the tumultuous years of WWI.

Marking the Centenary of the First World War, this project will enable local people to come together to focus on uncovering the largely untold story of children’s experience of war from a Birmingham perspective, thanks to National Lottery players. The project will be enlisting the help of local volunteers to research archival resources to find examples what life was like for a child living at that time, and the impact war had on their everyday lives. In addition, we will be seeking new material in the form of photographs, diaries, memoirs and other mementos that can be digitised and shared via an interactive website.

Over 500,000 children lost their father during this conflict, a tragic statistic that undoubtedly had a huge effect on children’s lives. This project aims to uncover stories about individual children that help us better understand the impact the War had on their lives both immediately and over the following decades.

Commenting on the award, Professor Ian Grosvenor, Chair of FoBAH said: “We are very pleased to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is an important part of the city’s history and huge gaps remain in our knowledge of children’s experiences during and after the First World War. We hope many people join this journey to research and share those experiences”.

For further information contact Liz Palmer, Project Manager on 07846196685 or email fobah@outlook.com

About Friends of Birmingham Archives and Heritage (FoBAH)

FoBAH is a volunteer group formed in 2009 to promote and support the work of Birmingham Archives & Heritage in making their historical collections as available to as wide an audience as possible.

FoBAH has over 100 individual members, who have a passionate interest in Birmingham’s heritage, and 3 valued patrons: Professor Sir David Cannadine, Sir Nicholas Goodison, Professor Catherine Hall.  The committee has a range of expertise, including: archivists, a genealogist, academics, postgraduate students, local historians, and archive users.