Union Jack Day, Grimsby 26th September 1914.

An original, photographic postcard by an unknown publisher. The location is in Oxford Street, Grimsby with Brereton Avenue, Cleethorpes in the background. Park Street is off to the right with the United Methodist Church just being out of sight. (Haith’s Seeds (bird seed) was located in this church/chapel from 1947 until 2008 when the business relocated to Europarc. In 2023, the business moved again to Bolingbroke Road in Louth.)

“Union Jack Day” was a fête organised by the Grimsby Press with a view to raising £500 for the Mayor’s Relief Fund. Hundreds of ladies were engaged in selling Union Jacks and Allies’ flags in addition to others taking charge of collecting sheets and 50 schools, comprising 10,028 children, with banners and flags paraded the “principal thoroughfares”. Grimsby was a blaze of colour! Souvenir programmes sold like “ripe cherries”. £664 was raised. (J. H. Tate was the Mayor.)