| Description | Minutes of committee appointed by Council to make arrangements for the opening of the new buildings at Edgbaston by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, planned for 7 July 1909. Membership of this committee was made up of members of the Buildings committee and the Finance and Estates committee. It was chaired by Charles Beale, the lay Vice-Chancellor. The minute book records minutes of three meetings held in May and June 1909.
Minutes refer to the proposed programme of arrangements for the event, but do not include details or times.
There are also references to the issue of circular letters and invitation cards to donors and other guests, information about numbers of guests invited from members of the Court of Governors, members of academic staff, members of Birmingham City Council, representatives of county councils in the Midlands, members of the Guild of Graduates, 'representative students', and selected donors, and seating arrangements in the Great Hall and 'grandstands'. Other arrangements discussed include the issue of tickets to graduates who were not members of the Guild of Graduates, past students, 'professors for their children', additional seats for members of Council, nurses from the General Hospital and Queen's Hospital, and 'honorary workers in connection with the royal visit'.
Minuts of the final recorded meeting, held on 23 June 1909, mention that Neville Chamberlain, Alderman Clayton, and Robert Heath, the Vice-Principal, were appointed a 'Seating sub-committee' to organise the seating of guests, and that flags were to be flown on the site |