Capturing, preserving and sharing Solihull's history. Also commemorating local casualties from the First World War #SolihullRemembers
Walter MacGregor (“Robbie”) Robinson (1877-1956) was a cyclist and writer from Liverpool. He worked for many years as an official for the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company and lived at Lyttleton Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham from at least 1925 until his death in 1956.
Continue reading ““Wayfarer””
The 30-ft tall granite ashlar obelisk was unveiled by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Birkenhead, on Saturday 21st May 1921 in the presence of between 10,000-20,000 cyclists. In 1963, a plaque was added to commemorate cyclists who died in the Second World War. The memorial was given a Grade II listing by English Heritage in 2001.
Continue reading “National Cyclists’ Memorial, Meriden”One hundred years ago today, 21st August 1914, the first British soldier is believed to have died on the Western Front.
John Henry Parr was the son of a milkman from Finchley, London. He joined the army in 1912, giving his age as 17, although the census a year earlier shows him as 13 years old in 1911. He was baptised at St John’s Church, Holloway on 4th September 1898. He would, therefore, have been about 14 years of age when he joined the Army in 1912 as a Private with the Middlesex Regiment.
Continue reading “Private John Parr – the first British death on the Western Front”
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