Description:Minute Book of the Lord Mayor of Birmingham’s European Famine Fund.
The Lord Mayor’s Fund was established by William Adlington Cadbury in December 1919 to provide aid to starving women and children in Europe after the end of World War 1. The Fund raised £30,058 by public donations over a period of two years and over £2,000 was raised by Birmingham school children to help the children of Austria. Graphic photographs of children suffering the effects of hunger were used to gain sympathy and raise money. Aid was also sent to Armenia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Russia.
The Fund paid for a children’s home called the Birmingham and District Famine Home for Children (or 'Kinderheim') in Kitzbuhel. They worked closely with the Quakers and with a new organisation, the Save the Children Fund, which was formed in May 1919 for the same purpose. The Lord Mayor's Fund closed in October 1921 when the committee decided that they should concentrate on helping the poor of Birmingham.