Yorkshire & the Great War

What happened after the guns fell silent on the Western Front? One hundred years after the Armistice on 11 November 1918, this exhibition explores the legacies of the First World War.

Free event on Heritage Open Day Sunday: Civilian internment, German pork butchers and other stories from Wakefield and Yorkshire

An illustrated presentation: Sunday 9 July 2017, 1pm at Roundhay School, main entrance Old Park Road, Leeds LS8 1ND Admission £5, under-19’s free. Pay on the door or by PayPal via www.forp.org The speakers will be Rowland Burley, grandson of Ding, also an airline pilot, and Robert Blackburn, grandson of the founder and chairman of Blackburn Aircraft Company. This presentation marks the centenary of Rowland Ding’s death and commemorates his extraordinary life and achievements, setting them in the context of the times in which he lived, and the early days of flying in and around Leeds.

The Leeds Convention held on 3 June 1917 might possibly claim to be the largest ‘anti-war’ conference held in Britain during the First World War but in any case it has been described by Ralph Miliband as ‘perhaps the most remarkable gathering of the period’. It saw 3,500 people from across Britain gather at the Leeds Coliseum (now the O2 Academy) in solidarity with the February Revolution which had overthrown the brutal Tsarist autocracy in Russia. The Convention voted to hail the inspiration of the Russian Revolution, defend civil liberties, call for an end to the First World War and vote to set up Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils in Britain in solidarity with the Soviets being formed in revolutionary Russia.

Mike Meadowcroft, former Liberal MP for Leeds and member of several government missions to troubled areas of the world, will present the story of one of the largest anti-war gatherings of the war. Philip Snowden and Fred Jowett, two leading figures in the Bradford ILP, were on the Committee of the Convention. Was Lloyd George right to think that there was less to lose by allowing the event to go ahead than by imposing a ban?

Part of the Nidderdale AONB and the First World War Events programme 2015 Tracing Wharfedale’s First World War archaeology. Clarke-Foley Centre, Ilkley. 22nd July, 7:30pm. Booking or pay on the door. £5 per adult, under 16s free (includes refreshments). For further information, visit: http://www.nidderdaleaonb.org.uk/ or call 01423 712950