On This Day, 14 February 1917

Birmingham Mail

Wednesday 14 February 1917

BIRMINGHAM SOLICITORS AND THE LORD MAYOR

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham (Alderman A. D. Brooke) was presented this afternoon with an address of congratulation and good wishes by the solicitors of the city and district, acting through a committee of the Birmingham Law Society. The address, which was bound beautifully illustrated, expressed admiration of the Lord Mayor in accepting office in such difficult times as the present, and grateful appreciation of the services rendered by him to the community during a long period. Mr Registrar Lowe, making the presentation, spoke in high terms of the esteem felt in the legal profession for the Lord Mayor, and referring to his many services to the city, said it was common knowledge that it was to Alderman’s Brooks’s legal training and aptitude for public […] that the success of the City Extension Scheme of 1909 was in a large measure due.

The Lord Mayor, in reply, expressed the pleasure it gave him to have the goodwill and esteem of his professional brethren on accepting office at a very difficult time, when ordinary municipal work was added to by duties imposed on the city in connection with matters arising out of the war. The twelve solicitors and one barrister on the City Council were the best evidence they could have of the confidence of the citizens in the legal profession, and should remove the slur sometimes cast upon it.