Plaque unveiling for W R Mitchell MBE.

The Society will recognise the achievements of W R Mitchell MBE “Bill” with the production and placement of a commemorative plaque.

It is with great pleasure that we invite Society members and the general public to join us for the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to W R Mitchell MBE at Skipton Parish Church Primary School on 7th December 2018.

The nomination of Mr Mitchell for a Society plaque came from his son, David and we found his supporting reason compelling:

“My father dedicated himself to writing about Yorkshire for over 60 years. He was editor of the Dalesman for twenty years and wrote over 200 books as well as hundreds of articles. He delivered innumerable talks and conducted countless interviews with Yorkshire characters. Many are contained in the WR Mitchell Archive, available online. Yorkshire TV marked his retirement with a programme about his life, narrated by Alan Bennett. He received an MBE in 1996 and was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Bradford. He was the first patron of the Yorkshire Dales Society. September 2009 saw him voted ‘Greatest Living Icon’ for the Yorkshire Dales National Park. In April 2014 he was voted 33 in a poll to find the 75 Greatest Icons of Yorkshire. Much much more is covered in his Wikipedia entry. There cannot be many parts of our great county that haven’t been touched by his magical presence. My sister and I are very proud of him”.

The plaque will be placed at the school Bill attended and will be unveiled at 2.30pm by Chris Mason, BBC Political Correspondent, who said “What an extraordinary privilege to be invited to Parish Church School to celebrate an incredible Yorkshireman and journalist. To doff my reporter’s hat in Bill’s direction, at the school where my mum and dad met and where my dad spent his entire career is really quite something. Thanks for having me.”

A NEW ERA. A NEW PLAQUE.

This will be the first of a new plaque design for the Society. Plaques for individuals will now be produced in the ‘traditional’ blue background with white lettering – the blue being specifically ‘Yorkshire’ blue of course. Corporate plaques, which the Society awards to businesses and organisations on merit, are larger and have blue lettering on a white background.

NOMINATIONS WELCOME.

If you wish to nominate a person, business or organisation for a Society plaque you can do so here.