Letter regarding flag day for The Comrades of the Great War
Transcript from Jarrow Express
The Comrades of the Great War
Flag Day at Jarrow
May I ask for a little space in your column to call the attention of your readers and to the public generally that a Flag Day has been arranged to take place tomorrow (Saturday) on behalf of the funds of the Jarrow branch of the above organisation and to respectfully request for it a generous and sympathetic support.
There are about 5000 members enrolled in the County of Durham Division alone and the membership of the Jarrow branch is 200 and steadily increasing. Their Headquarters in Walter Street have been furnished as comfortably as the funds of the committee would allow and they will be formally opened by His Worship the Mayor (Councillor R.I.Dodds) after the route march and demonstration which will form part of the day’s proceedings.
The good work which the branch has already been instrumental in carrying out in the interests of discharged Soldiers and Sailors and their dependants, and in respect of such matters as pensions, gratuities, employment etc, has already been most encouraging.
One of the chief objects the committee has in view is to provide a meeting place in a central part of town for discharged men and those home on leave, as well as wounded men.
I understand that our comrades of the flourishing branch of the organisation at South Shields are also having a Flag Day tomorrow, when their new club and headquarters will be formally opened by Sir Thomas Greenwood, M.P. They are, also, to have a procession and demonstration, and I make bold to ask that my humble remarks and appeal be considered in the spirit of comradeship with their efforts, and that the good people of our sister borough will heartily and liberally respond to the occasion. In conclusion I am asked by the committee and members to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance which their vice-president (Coun. R.I.Dodds) and lady friends have rendered in assisting to organise the Flag Day. They also desire to thank Mrs Harvey, (forewoman at Palmers Hebburn yard), Munitionettes and other friends for their kind services in connection with the football match held in aid of the funds.
Yours respectfully
On behalf of the Committee
A.A. Harvey
Wilberforce Street, Jarrow
Date: 17-May-1918
Where to find this: British Newspaper Archive
Contributed by Mel Brown
