AN EXHIBITION focusing on soldiers from Bromsgrove who fought in the First World War is coming to the town’s Norton Collection Museum.
And the organiser of the showcase Stephen Harper is hoping other Bromsgrovians with photographs and artefacts from the time will loan them for the event which coincides with the centenary of the end of the conflict.
The exhibition will go on display in the coming weeks and will run until November.
Mr Harper, who has been collecting for the last 20 years, said: “We have got quite a lot of photographs, oak-framed display bearing Bromsgrove soldiers’ names and other items but more would be welcome.
“Many museums have First World War exhibitions at the moment and some have had theirs running since 2014 to cover the whole centenary of the conflict.
“It will be nice to have one purely on the soldiers from Bromsgrove who gave their lives.”
One of the soldiers whose medals will be on show is Charles Longfield. He served as a corporal with the 1st and 8th batallion of the Worcestershire Regiment.
He was killed in action in France on April 24, 1917 when he was just 21 years old.
He lived in Worcester Street where his parents ran the family fishmonger business. His dad, also called Charles, served as a Bromsgrove Town Councillor.
Cpl Longfield was awarded three medals, the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal (affectionately known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, named after a Daily Mirror comic strip at the time).
His family would have also received a bronze ‘Death Plaque’ and a memorial scroll.
His death was recorded in 1917 in the local press in Redditch and Worcester.
Anyone who has any items relating to Bromsgrove and the First World War can call Stephen on 07866 250119.
