War Poetry…….particularly poignant, especially Wilfred Owen, the best known Great War poet who was killed in the last week of the Great War…….We will remember them…..Lest we forget…The Fallen
Book Plate from the Catalogue of the War Poetry Collection. 1921. L52.31.
The War Poetry Collection was presented to the Birmingham Reference Library in 1921 by an anonymous donor, in memory of William John Billington, 2/24 London Regiment, (Queen’s Hussars), 60th Division, formerly 2/2 South Midlands Field Ambulance, who was killed in action at Abu Tellul Ridge in Palestine on 9 March 1918.
The donor was William Cross of Rubery, who had assembled an unrivalled collection of 1,233 books and pamphlets of poetry relating to the First World War, written by both soldiers and civilians.
Included are poems in English, Breton, Czech, Danish, French, Gaelic, German (Swiss), Italian, and Latin, by members of the British and Allied Nations. There is poetry which was published in Britain, Canada, Australia, America and Barbados.
Many additions were made to the Collection by the Reference Library, notably in 1938 when a fine collection of…
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Keith Bracey the Brummie Bard Birmingham & Black Country poet & writer 