A Shropshire town will host a festival to mark the 90th anniversary of Save the Children, it was revealed today.

Ellesmere, which is the birthplace of the organisation’s founder Eglantyne Jebb, will host the event next year.

Members of Ellesmere’s Chamber of Commerce are working on plans for the event, which may be held in the town’s Cremorne Gardens.

Lincoln McMullan, chairman of the chamber of commerce, said the plans were in the “very early stages”.

“It will be a one-off,” he said. “We want to make it into a big concert and big festival with dancers and singers. Nothing is written in stone, but it will happen.”

Mr McMullan said he had been talking to a member of the Jebb family, who had said it would be a fantastic idea to have a concert to celebrate the occasion.

He said he had bumped into fellow chamber member Anne Hartley in the street and in a matter of minutes, the planned celebration had grown into a festival with fireworks, singers and dancers.

The pair are working with fellow chamber members Geoff Ardill and Juliet Devereaux.

Potential plans also include unveiling plaques in the town and also at Cremorne Gardens and possibly even the creation of a monument.

Mr McMullan said: “We need to make people more aware. The idea would be at the same time of having the concert or festival, we would unveil a plaque.”

He said there were still people in Ellesmere who were unaware that Eglantyne Jebb came from the town.

She was born in the town in 1876 and grew up on her family’s estate.

The International Save the Children Union was founded in Geneva in 1920, with the British Save the Children Fund and the Swedish RŠdda Barnen as leading members.

Eglantyne Jebb died in a nursing home in Geneva in 1928. She is remembered today as the inspirational founder of the Save the Children organisation.

Members of her family still live in Shropshire.

By Deborah Collins