Birchfield Harriers Sporting Tales was a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which looked at the history of a famous athletics club, and today’s members who are helping to maintain the club’s traditions.
We have just gained further HLF support for a new project “Running between the Lines” based on the club’s involvement in the First World War, in particular the missing Honour board which lists those members who took part in the war.
Contact Us if you have any information we could add.
October 2015- As part of our new Heritage Lottery Funded project on WWI, we have created a new, more user friendly website which you can find here: http://archive.birchfieldharriers.com
Birchfield Harriers Sporting Tales 
Hello, My grandad was a Birchfield Harrier and he served in WWI. I looked on your roll of honour but could not find his name there. His name was Charles Duncan Swallow. If this is of any interest to you he had quite an interesting “war”
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Hi Vivienne, Thanks for getting in touch. We would be fascinated to hear your grand-dad’s story. It’s probable that not all the members who served in WW1 were listed, as it’s clear that some names were added later than the alphabetical list and also the club was so dispersed at the time and covered such a wide area of the Midlands and beyond that they did not meet up very often to exchange news.
So we’d be very happy to add in your grand-dad on the version of the memorial that emerges from this project. I’ve had a look to see if I can find a record of him in newspaper reports at the time and will forward one to you. The article is a bit confusing in that it refers to an S. Swallow in the results, but a C. Swallow in the team results and the finishing positions (14th and 15th) are different. It gives his military affiliation as “Ordnance”, does this tie in with what you know?
We’d love to meet you to hear any stories you still have about your grand-dad. Are you still in the Birmingham area? Interestingly, one of the other athletes running that day was W.C. Smith, whose great grand-daughter has been in regular contact with the club.
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Thank you for getting back to me. I no longer live in the Birmingham area but moved to South Leicestershire in 1999. I am more than happy to tell my grandad’s story. If you cannot meet me I am happy to talk to you on the phone. My landline is 01455 286151. Could it in a typo as it is quite an unusual surname.
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