大象传媒

During the Second World War most people relied heavily on radio communications to give you the news. Not many people would have had a television. Other ways of finding out what was going on in the war was "Pathe Pictorial" which was shown at the cinemas. It would give you the numbers of casualites on both sides and total loss of planes and ships.

In the winter of 1941 the news of the exploits in the war was very disheartening. The Germans held the initiative in all but air power and their submarines ruled the Atlantic, torpedoing merchant ships as well as the navy.

The news was that HMS Ark Royal had taken a direct hit and was sinking. The third Ark Royal had been adopted by Leeds on 4.11.1941 and 10 days after it was sunk.
It was very sorry news for Leeds citizens to hear.

A few weeks after the sinking took place Leeds held a money raising 'Warships Week'. Collecting tins were given to people and it was up to you to fill them as much as you could from friends and family. The citizens of Leeds raised a staggering 拢9.3 million to be able to have a replacement ship built.

I was a teenager at the time and was inspired, by the plight of the ship and what it meant to us people in Leeds, to write a poem and this was it:

The Ark Royal was a very great ship
It's men were strong and brave
They fought like heroes to the last
Their ship they tried to save
But alas when in that battle strong
Those brutal nazis came along
They hit that great, happy ship
And so into the sea it slipped.
So if you put your money in and put it into
our big tin
A sister ship will come along and take
the place of that one gone.

I found out later that, miraculously, only one of her 1500 crew was killed.

The adoption of the ship, by Leeds, was not officially sealed until September 1942.

The replacement ship was launched by the Queen in 1950 and on 25.10.1973, at the time the Queen Mother, visited Leeds to grant the Freedom of the City to HMS Ark Royal.

Leeds has held a strong connection with Ark Royal ships ever since.

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