My next scheduled talk is to the Ackworth and District Heritage Group on 'The Pontefract Murder'.
This is not as gruesome as it sounds but tells the story of how, in 1918, two soldiers, Cardwell and Barrett, conspired to rob a jeweler's shop in Pontefract and in so doing killed the shopkeeper.
It was a crime that attracted national interest being reported in newspapers as far apart as Bristol and Aberdeen.
What is most surprising is, in an age before mass communication, they were captured in London within four days of the robbery and murder and executed together just four months later - justice was not only severe, but swift.
Like all my talks it is well illustrated and I can also, time permitting, compare this crime with how it might be dealt with today, and examine how the law has changed in 99 years.

WWI themed talks

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI and I have two talks relevant to this momentous occasion.
The first, The Cult of Remembrance, tell how war memorials were established after the war's end, and of the homecoming of the Unknown Warrior in 1920.
It is lavishly illustrated and comes in two versions, one is simply photographs of the main events while the second contains a film, made at the time, of the Warrior's homecoming, the 1920 Armistice Day parade and the unveiling of the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
This runs a little longer than my standard talk and if you are interested in this version you should allow perhaps one and a quarter hours to see it.

The second is a new talk covering the Armistice itself and the complex series of events that led up to the end of World War I.

Both these talks would be suitable for scheduling in November of 2018.

Barnbow

I've been surprised at the number of societies who've requested this talk, four so far this year, as it's a subject which has been well documented and is a feature of many other speaker's programs.

Perhaps I just tell it a different way!

My talk details how and why the building of the National Shell Filling Factory No. 1 at Barnbow was necessary during WWI, who worked there and the terrible accident, resulting in the loss of 35 lives, which occurred at Barnbow on 6th December 1916.
I also cover in my talk the aftermath, the memorials to the dead and the fate of the Barnbow site.
Perhaps your society would also be interested in this my most popular talk.

Pontefract Local History Society

A talk last Saturday to the Pontefract and District Local History Society on 'The Kingdom of Alms'. This talk details the extensive history of Almshouses in Pontefract, a history which goes back to the period before the Norman conquest.

The title of the talk derives from Pontefract being known during the Middle Ages as the Kingdom of Alms as by the end of the 18th century no fewer than ten almshouses had been founded in the town - a mark both of its importance during the middle ages, and the wealth of its inhabitants.

Most of Pontefract's hospitals were founded by wealthy benefactors, after whom they were generally named. They usually received (or later acquired) additional endowments of land, property &/or investments in order to maintain their inmates.

The oldest of Pontefract's Almshouses, or Hospitals as they were originally called, was St Nicholas’ which existed before the Conquest and was reputedly founded by an abbot of St Oswald's Priory as an almshouse for 11 poor people  and 2 servants although it may be even older having possibly been founded in 625 AD by Ethelburga, wife of King Edwin and who reputedly gave her Northumbrian name of Tada to Tanshelf, as Pontefract was called in Saxon times.