Moseley has been the birthplace and/or home to many people who were well known locally or nationally over the centuries and the History Group has published booklets about a number of these. The first of these booklets entitled ‘Some Moseley Personalities Volume I’ provides biographical sketches of the following personalities in alphabetical order.
Click on the names below to read the respective articles and click here to read the introduction to Volume I .
- The Balden family of Balsall Heath House
- Joseph Chamberlain
- Percy Harrison
- Sir John Holder
- Sir Barry Jackson
- Cyril Lander
- Joseph, Harry and Oliver Lucas
- Sir Herbert Manzoni
- Sidney H. Meteyard and Kate Eadie
- Henry V. Morton
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- William Dyke Wilkinson
These further articles appear in ‘Some Moseley Personalities Volume II’.
- William Adams of ‘Sorrento’
- Dr Edward Bach
- John Worley Baseley
- Harold Burnett
- Prof John Leigh Collis
- Dr James Johnstone Gracie
- Edith Holden
- Edward Holmes – Architect – see also article on Edward Holmes’ family dynasty below
- John Morris Jones
- F W Lanchester
- Nathaniel Cracknell Reading
The stories of other Moseley personalities are told in the following articles. (Click to read)
- John Avins , a successful Birmingham businessman and notable philanthropist who lived at Highfield House, Church Road and made a significant contribution to Moseley life
- Extracts from the personal Diary of Matthew Boulton (a Moseley resident not the well-known industrialist) give great insight into the social, cultural, religious, intellectual, military, agricultural and personal lifestyle of an affluent gentleman in mid 19th Century Moseley.
- An article on Edward Holmes, the Moseley architect, gives a detailed account of the fortunes of the large family dynasty he created.
- Edith Blackwell Holden, artist and illustrator and author of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady which became popular when published 57 years after her death in 1977
- The Blackwells of Chantry Road – Althans Blackwell and his wives Agnes and Alice and children Sybil and Eric – giving an insight into middle-class society in Victorian times. A second article on a Victorian Middle-Class Garden describes their garden at Brackley Dene as an example of the Victorian gardening ethos
- Andrew Franklin CVO, a British diplomat in China who accumulated an impressive collection of Chinese ceramics and art bequeathed a large portion of it to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
- Lisel Haas – Photographer
- Ernest Marston Rudland
- Sir Alan Cottrell
- Collingwoode Underhill – a Moseley Architect – Graham Underhill’s account of his father and his Moseley connections. See also an article on Coll’s service in WW1.
- Carl Chinn’s story – From Kings Heath to Sparkbrook
- Harry Payne
- Dr. Victoria Mary Crosse and her work at Sorrento hospital
- James Horsfall who lived at ‘The Firs’ in Stoney Lane, and the Horsfall company
- Richard Cadbury and his family at Moseley Hall
- Roy Thomas – power station engineer, senior member of the Methodist Church and secretary of Moseley Local History group
Articles about Moseley people also appear in Local History Newsletters from 2012-13. Click on the Newsletter edition to read the article:
- John Bowen – Newsletter September 2012 – and his house in Strensham Hill – Newsletter November 2012
- Beryl Chempin – Newsletter March 2013
- Dame Hilda Lloyd – Newsletter April 2013
- Garfield Morgan – Newsletter December 2012
- Daphne Slater – Newsletter April 2013