Capturing, preserving and sharing Solihull's history. Also commemorating local casualties from the First World War #SolihullRemembers
At 3pm on 16th October 1938, a war memorial erected by the Solihull, Shirley, and Olton branches of the British Legion was unveiled at Robin Hood Cemetery. The intention was that the The Old Comrades’ grave would provide “a resting-place for old soldiers who die friendless or whose relatives cannot afford the cost of private burial.”
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In 2006/7, Solihull Libraries, working in partnership with Solihull College, ran a series of 10-week family history courses for people tracing ancestors from the Caribbean. We believe these to have been the first full-length courses in the UK for Caribbean family history. The courses were free to attend as a result of funding from the European Social Fund’s Equal Engage programme. When the funding came to an end in 2007, the tutors and some of the learners decided to continue as a family history group and have been meeting at the library ever since.
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The Grade II-listed hollow bronze statue in Malvern Park is by notable Victorian sculptor Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890) and was cast by H. Young & Co., Pimlico. Boehm was born in Austria to Hungarian parents but settled in England in 1862 and became a British subject three years later. He became the favourite sculptor of the Royal Family. The Horse and His Master statue was created in 1874 and from c.1904-1953 it stood on the lawn in front of Tudor Grange (as pictured above c.1910) before its removal to Malvern Park.
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Born in Trinidad in 1925, Prince Albert Jacob left his homeland at the age of 17½ to serve with the Royal Air Force in the Second World War. Returning to Britain after being demobbed, he worked hard and overcame enormous difficulties, including discrimination and racial abuse, to have a successful career with the Post Office and represent Great Britain in athletics. After living in various Midlands towns since 1948, he and his wife settled in Knowle where they have lived for almost 50 years.
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