Lodge Hill Cemetery and Warfare (2014-present)

People’s Heritage Co-operative have worked with community groups, local secondary and primary schools exploring Lodge Hill Cemetery and the lives of people buried there. Projects include:

Warfare and Lodge Hill Cemetery

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains both Second World War and First World War graves at Lodge Hill Cemetery at several sites across 25 hectares. The Southern Cross Hospital was located nearby at the University of Birmingham’s campus and accounts for many different nationalities of soldiers buried at Lodge Hill.

There are 498 World War One burials at Lodge Hill Cemetery, most of them in a war graves plot in Section B10. We have worked extensively with the local community to explore and document the stories of those buried there.

In 2014 Paganel Primary School visited Lodge Hill Cemetery to commemorate the start of World war 1, one hundred years earlier (August 28th 1914). It formed the basis of a project where pupils creatively presented their work to others. Dr Nicola Gauld writes more on our blog.

Pupils with Dr Gauld at Lodge Hill — Dr Nicola Gauld with pupils at Lodge Hill Cemetery

Further research continued at Paganel Primary School with visits continuing in November. Some of the work was fundied in 2016 by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Living Memories Fund. in which Robyn O’Halloran, a student from the University of Birmingham to developed and delivered a series of workshops. She shares her reflections on our blog.

Lodge Hill Cemetery Australian War Memorial c. 1921 — The soldiers’ section of Lodge Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, England. From the collection of Mr Alfred Thomas Sharp

The research from these projects has been collated into a website: Fields of Remembrance.