Birmingham (Lodge Hill) Cemetery

The First World War saw four important hospitals - besides many smaller - posted at Birmingham: the 1st Southern General (3,500 beds) was in the university and other buildings, with a section at Stourbridge; the 2nd/1st Southern General (1,800 beds) in the Dudley Road Infirmary and in billets; the 1st Birmingham War Hospital (1,000 beds) at Rubery Hill Asylum and the 2nd Birmingham War Hospital (900 beds) at Hollymoor Asylum.

Military hospitals were at Birmingham again during the Second World War, including No 7 Canadian Hospital at Marston Green. Birmingham and Coventry were among the chief manufacturing areas producing materials for the war effort and were subjected to many devastating air raids during the Blitz of 1940-41.

BIRMINGHAM (LODGE HILL) CEMETERY contains 498 First World War burials, most of them in a war graves plot in Section B10. The names of those buried in the plot, or in graves elsewhere in the cemetery which could not be individually marked, are inscribed on a Screen Wall. Second World War burials number 125, most of them scattered throughout the cemetery, although there is a small plot in Section 2E.

BIRMINGHAM MUNICIPAL CREMATORIUM stands within the cemetery. In the chapel, there is a bronze plaque commemorating 48 servicemen of the Second World War whose remains were cremated there.