In completing this quite challenging project I have received an immense amount of support from a large number of people and contributors and I am really most grateful for their input and encouragement.
In particular, to the students and all those who contributed content and who are listed in the various chapters a truly massive thank you for all your hard work.
Special thanks to Dr Nicola Gauld who served as the Coordinator for ‘Voices of War and Peace: The Great War and its legacy’ based in the Library of Birmingham. Nicola’s positive involvement, advice and encouragement at the start of this project has really been invaluable.
Thanks also to a very dear man, Paul Sabapathy CVO CBE, formerly HM Lord-Lieutenant of West Midlands who I had the honour to serve as one of his Deputy Lieutenants. It was his suggestion that I should seek to involve schools so that they might not only receive the output from the project but also have the opportunity to contribute.
My sincere thanks go to Jean Weston and Marlene Price , authors of a superb book, ‘ The Lost Twenty Nine’ (Remembering the soldiers of the Great War buried in Lye and Wollescote Cemetery) and the Trustees of the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust for their kind permission to use the design template from that publication.
Importantly to Dr. Dan Andrews, introduced to me by Nicola who took on the task of creating our website. Dan has done such a sterling job particularly as for part of the same time he was working hard to complete his PhD in Interactive Story Telling.
To any information sources not correctly attributed I ask forgiveness for an enthusiastic and busy amateur’s meagre attempt and apologise for any inaccuracies and omissions.
To all ‘proper’ historians I flag my esteem for your dedication, professionalism and as I now know it …hard work!