A 1914-1918 Great War Exhibition officially opens at the Norton Collection Museum, Bromsgrove, today.
The Birmingham Road venue will be showcasing a private collection owned by one of its volunteers, Steve Harpur, to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.
It will be the first time the collection, which includes four memorial tablets containing 215 Bromsgrove names, will go on public display.
The majority of the display focuses on soldiers from Bromsgrove who fought in the First World War.
Mr Harpur, who has been collecting for the past 20 years, said: “I managed to pick up most of the collection by going to junk shops and visiting car boot sales.
“As soon as I found out the museum was doing a First World War exhibition I was eager to get involved.”
Dennis Norton, the museum’s owner, contacted Mr Harpur to see if he would be interested in putting his items, which also include rifles, badges, shrapnel and blades, on show.
Over the next few years, Mr Norton plans to add even more to the collection he has built throughout his life.
He said: “I hope to expand the museum at the front of the building and the back and really make people aware we are here.”
“It’s important to recognise the brave soldiers who fought in the First World War and I want to continue to do that.”
The exhibition will be opened by Worcestershire Medal Service owner Phil McDermott at 10am today and will run until November when the centenary of Armistice Day takes place.
