Leeds Ark Royal Speeches

The above photograph shows the dignitaries on the steps of the Leeds city museum to both take the salute and make speeches at the final parade here in leeds of the crew of the warship HMS Ark Royal. This photo is perhaps not the best that I took of this group of people but I chose it because of the man on the right of the photo. The people in the photo are from left Dr Ingrid Roscoe, the Lord-Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Lord Mayor of Leeds Jim McKenna, Commander Robert Bellfield RN The Commander HMS Ark Royal and lastly High Sheriff of West Yorkshire Richard R Clough Esq. I spoke with Richard about his uniform as High Sheriff and also about the role. The role of the High Sheriff is a centuries old title, steeped in tradition and the formal role is the keeper of the Queen's Peace in the county and the responsibility of Her Majesty's Judges and other public duties. Today the post is unpaid and the holder even pays for their ceremonial outfit and I must say I thought it a very natty outfit. He wears a really nice buckled shoes and carries a ceremonial dress sword. I still do not always find it comes easy asking people I do not know to pose for my camera, else I would have asked the high sheriff to pose for me so you could better see his outfit. Ark Royal has had a long connection with the people and city of Leeds. This connection goes back to the days of WW2 when prior to Warship Week the city decided to adopt the then HMS Ark Royal, days later the ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean. This spurred the people of Leeds to raise enough money to pay for a replacement ship, they raised £9 million and since that time there have been strong ties with both the ship and the crew. HMS Ark Royal was granted the freedom of the city of Leeds in 1973 and the strong association with the city continues. The current HMS Ark Royal was commissioned in 1985 and will be decommissioned and scrapped next month. I will post more about the Ark Royal parade tomorrow.