Coronation Day 1937

Wednesday 12th May 1937 saw the coronation at Westminster Abbey in London of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The date had been chosen for the coronation of King Edward VIII who had become king on the death of his father George V in January 1936. Although Edward VIII’s abdication in December resulted in a new king and queen on the throne, the coronation date of 12th May was retained.

In Solihull, the event was marked by a three-day carnival, which ran into the Whitsuntide weekend, and many of the villages now in the borough held their own celebrations.

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Burleigh in Wartime, and beyond

“Burleigh in Wartime” was the title written in February 1940 by Clara Emily Milburn (née Bagnall) on the first page of a soft-backed exercise book. After five months of war she had decided to write a day-to-day account of how she and her small part of the English countryside faced the trials and tribulations of a country at war. Extracts from what turned out to be 15 such exercise books were published in 1979 as Mrs Milburn’s Diaries: an Englishwoman’s day-to-day reflections 1939-45.

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Solihull in wartime – colour film

Harold Thomas Lavender (1900-1953) was a Walsall-born businessman, who was Managing Director of Proctor & Lavender brick and builder’s merchants. He was in partnership with Arthur Herbert Proctor until 1st May 1928, after which he continued the business alone, still trading as Proctor and Lavender. He lived in Dorridge and was elected to Warwickshire County Council in 1943 as the representative of Solihull First district.

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H.M.S. Vivacious

HMS Vivacious crew

This photograph shows Royal Navy crew members from H.M.S. Vivacious and members of the National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO) who played a football match during the crew’s visit to Solihull in spring 1944. We think the sailors are on the right in the solid-coloured shirts and the NALGO union members are on the left in the light-sleeved tops, but do let us know if you have any further information. The man in the top hat is Councillor James Harold Malley (1891-1955), Chairman of Solihull Urban District Council 1943-45.

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4th May 1920

John Hawkes, formerly a Private with 73rd Battalion, B. Company, no. 5 platoon, Canadian Royal Highlanders, died at 370 Beach Street, Saco, Maine, USA on 4th May 1920, aged 41 years and 20 days. His cause of death was listed as Bright’s Disease (an inflammation of the kidneys), with “life in trenches” given as a contributory factor.

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Organising your family history files

family history folders

Even if you use a computer to organise your family tree, you are still likely to end up with a lot of physical documents that you need to keep in order. There are a number of ways of doing this, the most obvious being alphabetically, but this can become confusing as your research grows, especially if you have multiple people with the same name. Another way is to use numbers from a pedigree chart of your direct ancestors.

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Documenting Coronavirus in Solihull

pen and notebook

At Solihull Heritage & Local Studies we try to make sure that we are collecting items that will help future historians understand the history that we lived through.

Official reports will give the statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic, but won’t include the stories of everyday experiences and people’s feelings. Please help us to document what it’s like so that future generations can understand what we went through.

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