| Description | Minutes of the committee established by University Council in October 1938 to make plans for the continuation of University activity in the event of an outbreak of war, and to decide on the precautions to be taken against air attack to protect buildings and staff and students. The volume includes minutes of a meeting of staff held on 12 October 1938 in response to concerns raised by members of the Birmingham branch of the Association of University Teachers which records the decision of University Council that an Executive committee, consisting of the Pro-Chancellor, Treasurer, Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Princpal, and Eric Vincent, be appointed to deal with emergency matters and to consider questions of University policy during the emergency. Names were also proposed at this meeting for membership of an Air Raids Precautions committee, and the first meeting took place on 28 October 1938.
Membership of the committee consisted of the Vice-Chancellor Raymond Priestley, the Treasurer, E. P. Beale, Eric Vincent, Vice-Principal Neville Moss, members of academic staff, the President and Vice-President of the Guild of Undergraduates, the Registrar, and the Secretary. Major Pinkard was also present as the University Officer Training Corps. Matters discuss by the committee before the outbreak of war in 1939 included plans for the fire protection of buildings, the concentration of University work at Edgbaston, the construction of shelters for students and staff at University buildings including University House and Chancellor's Hall student residences, and the conversion of the model mine to serve as an air raid shelter, the provision of First Aid classes and 'decontamination' facilities, precautions to be taken against gas attack and the supply of respirators, and the establishment of a rota for night watching for staff who were too old for military duty. Minutes of the meeting held on 20 December 1938 include sets of recommendations for air raid precautions at Chancellor's Hall and a report on precautions against air attack involving gas which was drawn up by an advisory committee appointed from the staff of the Chemistry department. The committee met again in March 1939 [following Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia] to discuss continuing preparations, and minutes of the meeting held on 27 March 1939 include a report by an advisory sub-committee on precautions against gas attack to be adopted in the Medical School
The volume also contains minutes of 'a meeting of the Officers of the First Aid stations under the University of Birmingham Air Raid Precautions' dated 19 May 1939 which discuss the use of buildings as casualty stations and the provision of medical supplies and stretchers, and minutes of 'an informal meeting of the Officers of Air Raid Precautions in the University' dated 5 July which contains information about the training of Air Raid Wardens, the preparation of shelters and plans for the evacuation of premises. The minutes state that staff and students working in the Edmund Street buildings 'would have to rely on the public first aid posts and decontamination', and the committee seems primarily to have managed ARP work at Edgbaston, though minutes of the meeting held on 14 October 1939 include a report of Wardens' meetings at Edmund Street which contains details about shelters there, and minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 1941 include a report of the Faculty of Arts A.R.P sub-committee which was based at Edmund Street. Minutes of the meeting held on 7 October 1942 mention that responsibility for fire watching at Edmund Street is now included in the City of Birmingham's 'block scheme'
After outbreak of war, the business of the committee focused on practice evacuations, the installation of warning sirens, black-out regulations, night patrols, the staffing of First Aid posts, and the supply of equipment. Minutes of meetings held towards the end of 1940, when Birmingham was experiencing air raids, concentrate on the management of night patrols of University buildings, mostly at Edgbaston, modifications to shelters, and policy during daylight raids
The committee met infrequently from 1941 onwards, presumably as a result of the decreased threat of air raids. The main business discussed remains the same, though the discussion primarily concerns the management of the fire watching scheme and training required for fire guards and first aid teams |