Sir D Finnemore
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As a Judge he will be remembered as a man who “heard courteously, answered wisely, considered soberly and decided impartially”. As a B.B. Captain for 60 years he once said, “It is in The Boys’ Brigade where I feel I can do most good, in an age when example is needed by parents and responsible citizens, to our young people”.
Sir Donald’s service in the B.B. can have few equals. He started the 1st Birmingham Company of The Boys’ Life Brigade in 1913 which became the IstA Birmingham after union with the B.B. in 1926. He was first elected to the Brigade Executive in 1926 and became a Brigade Vice-President in 1947. In 1964 he started the 11th Birmingham Company and went with the Boys to their annual camp until he was over 80. He was an expert in open air cooking and in woodcraft.
During the first World War he served in France as a Field Officer with the British Red Cross and after the War stood unsuccessfully four times as a Liberal candidate for Parliament. During the second World War he served as Chairman of the Conscientious Objectors’ Tribunal in Birmingham. One of Sir Donald’s greatest B.B. occasions was as Commandant of the 1954 International Camp on the playing fields of Eton when he was host to 2,000 Boys from the U.K. and overseas. All who were present on that occasion will never forget his inspired leadership.
Sir Donald was a great man and it is not possible to do justice to all he accomplished in his long life for the B.B. He is best remembered for his work with “his Boys” in the two Birmingham Companies which he formed, and in which his magnetic love for and devotion to Boys found true expression, winning their respect and fostering their growth in Christian manliness.
