| AdminHistory | The material in this collection results from a project undertaken by former 1940s students of University College, Leicester to create a Memorial for their Leicester contemporaries who had had died in the Second World War. The project was initiated after a reunion of 1940s students in 1999 when it was realised that there was no clear idea of how many Leicester students had been killed in the Second World War and there was no Memorial to them. Six students were subsequently identified and material relating to their lives gathered. The Memorial Committee (Ron Kinns, Norman Sharpe, Audrey Cooper and Roger Anderson) decided that a Memorial Tribute Book should be produced and that a visible Memorial in the form of a bench bearing a plaque with the names of the deceased should be placed in the grounds of the University.
Extensive research unearthed a considerable amount of material, not just about the six students who died, but also about many other students and activities at the University College of Leicester in the 1940s. Photographs, memorabilia and reminiscences were collected and copies were used to compile a Memorial Tribute to the dead students and to document life at the College in the 1940s. These compilations were organised and produced by Ron Kinns. In addition Ron Kinns compiled a Memorial Tribute Collection of the literary works of George Eades, one of the Leicester students killed in the war.
On April 20th 2001 copies of the Memorial volumes were presented to the families of the six students and to the University and the Memorial bench, situated on the lawn facing the Fielding Johnson Building, was handed over. |