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The site is largely devoted to family history, ancestry and historical documents associated with our family trees. This is an entirely non-commercial site run for personal interest.

The General Strike, May 1926, Birmingham

Pamela and Hazel Downing, Jul 1926

The year 2026 marks the centenary of the General Strike. As part of the preparation for the national emergency in May that year the government recruited large numbers of Special Constables. Amongst those who volunteered was Noel Downing. Seven years earlier he had been demobilised from the Welsh Guards, where he had served as an officer, promoted to Lieutenant at the end of the war.

The unusual photo of Noel’s two daughters is labelled as having been taken in Jul 1926. This was after the emergency had subsided but both young girls, Pamela and Hazel, appear to be relishing wielding their father’s equipment in the garden of 16 Woodbourne Road, Edgbaston.

During the course of the year 2026 we will publish further photos of the Downing household, 100 years on, as well as accompanying extracts from Molly Downing’s diary. The Main Article is published here and details  of Noel Downing’s longstanding career in the Special Constabulary are available here.

The whole site contains over 450 pages – please navigate by the menu at the top or the topics below. To list all pages in order of publication click here.

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