Image ID: 42466

Hucknall Peace Day Remembrance Parade, High Street, Hucknall, 1919

High Street
Hucknall
Nottinghamshire
England

Hucknall marked the end of the Great War a little late. This parade took place on Saturday, 23rd August 1919. Lieutenant William Amos Brown, Royal Garrison Artillery, led the parade. An Annesley Road resident, he had been commissioned from the ranks on 31st March 1918. (Sources: 'Notts Local News', 30th August 1919; Absent Voters' List, 1919; and Lt. Brown's 'medal index card'.The scene is a sad one of men parading in civilian clothes past flowers, a flag at half mast and a sign saying 'In Memory of our Glorious dead'. This photograph shows the crowd which had assembled to mark the Peace Day celebrations. 'It was a most impressive and moving occasion as the people believed they had emerged triumphantly from a 'war that was to end war'. It is still often forgotten that the First World War did not officially end on 11th November 1918. The treaty negotiations at Versailles continued long into the following year, with the Germans desperately battling with the allies' desire to turn the screw as tight as possible in the matter of war reparations. But clearly the Treaty would be signed sooner or later, and governments started to turn their minds to the matter of marking the official end of the war. In Britain the Peace Committee met for the first time on 9th May 1919, with Lord Curzon (of Kedleston), Foreign Secretary in charge. Curzon, who loved pomp and ceremony, outlined a celebration running over four days (tentatively pencilled in for the beginning of August), including a Victory March through London, a day of Thanksgiving services, a river pageant, and a day of popular festivities. Lloyd George favoured something simpler, but the rest of the Cabinet supported Curzon. In any event the signing of peace at the end of June meant that arrangements had to be speeded up, and the celebration was fixed for 19th July. Lloyd George was taken with the French plan for their Victory March in Paris on Bastille Day, 14th July, which involved Allied troops marching past a great catafalque and saluting in honour of the dead. Edwin Lutyens was called to 10 Downing Street and asked to come up with a design for a suitable structure. Within hours he had produced a set of full-size working drawings of a 'cenotaph' (meaning literally 'empty tomb'), and plans for the London Victory Parade and associated Peace Day celebrations went ahead. On the morning itself King George V issued a message to the wounded: 'To these, the sick and wounded who cannot take part in the festival of victory, I send out greetings and bid them good cheer, assuring them that the wounds and scars so honourable in themselves, inspire in the hearts of their fellow countrymen the warmest feelings of gratitude and respect.' reported in the Daily Express, 19 July 1919. The Victory parade itself in London was a massive success. Nearly 15,000 troops took part in the march, led by the victorious Allied commanders. The salutes of Pershing, Foch, Haig and Beatty to dead comrades as they passed the Cenotaph were captured in unforgettable photographs which appeared in newspapers throughout the country. (The Cenotaph referred to here was a temporary structure, which quickly began to deteriorate. Lutyens designed its permanent replacement which was the centrepiece of the ceremony on 11 November 1920 when the body of the Unknown Warrior was returned to Britain for a state funeral in Westminster Abbey.) Around the country celebrations took a host of different forms: convicts at Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight were given a holiday and extra rations including plum pudding. Birmingham laid on entertainment in its municipal parks for all the city's children who were also presented with a commemorative medal. Cakes and ale were added to the meals at some of the workhouses - and at Shoreditch Workhouse old married couples were allowed to sit together 'if they wanted to.' In Reading the Lady Mayoress planted trees grown from seeds picked up on the Verdun battlefield. (See DCBR000852 and NCCC000927 for other pictures of Peace Day celebrations around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire on this web-site)

Date: 1919

Organisation Reference: NCCC000927

Organisation: