Portraits of Valour: The Soldiers Who Came to the Guildhall

A free exhibition at Leicester Guildhall about eight local men photographed in its courtyard after the First World War.

On 22 November 1919 the Leicester Chronicle published a photograph of eight men from Belgrave and District Working Men’s Club and Institute, including shoemakers, blacksmiths, cotton workers and telephone engineers who served in the First World War. The exhibition places visitors in the Guildhall courtyard and Mayor’s Parlour, where a replica of the club’s six-panel Roll of Honour names all 143 members who served. It also presents photographs from Leicester City Council’s archive, the club’s equal recognition of every serving man, four decorated members and the 14 who did not return. Acknowledgements name the At-Risk War Memorials Project. The exhibition acknowledges Denis Kenyon, Robin Jenkins and Sheila Banyard of the At-Risk War Memorials Project for their contribution to bringing these records together.