News Release

Issued 7.2.11                                For immediate use

Special dedication service as HMS Ark Royal chairs entrusted to Leeds Parish Church

A special service marking the long association between HMS Ark Royal and the city of Leeds will take place next Sunday, February 13th , at Leeds Parish Church when two ceremonial chairs from the chapel of HMS Ark Royal will be dedicated and placed in the church. The hand-crafted chairs by Yorkshire carpenter, Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson, are being entrusted to Leeds Parish Church following the decision to decommission the aircraft carrier and will be officially received during a service of Choral Matins at 10.30am.

Photo- interview opportunity: Editors, Reporters and  Photographers,  You are cordially invited to a photo/interview/film opportunity at Leeds Parish Church, this Friday 11 February at 2pm, when Lt Cdr Paul Alderton and the Chaplain of the Ark Royal, Revd Martin Evans will deliver the hand-crafted chairs from HMS Ark Royal's chapel to the Parish Church. Receiving them at that time will be the Rector of Leeds Canon Tony Bundock. (This will also be an opportunity to preview, with the two officers, the Freedom of the City Parade in Leeds on Saturday 12th February.)

The Service of Dedication in Leeds Parish Church on Sunday February 13th at 10.30am will be conducted in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Jim McKenna, the ship's senior officer Commander Rob Bellfield, and the HMS Ark Royal's chaplain, the Reverend Martin Evans. Sea Cadets from T.S. Ark Royal in Leeds will be attending the service, as will representatives of the Leeds Royal Naval Association and the Normandy Veterans Association.

The special service takes place the day after a Freedom of the City parade for the sailors of HMS Ark Royal through the city (on Saturday 12th February). Around 160 sailors from the Portsmouth-based aircraft carrier – which is being decommissioned in March – will parade through the city to exercise the Freedom of the City for the final time and celebrate the close links established with the Ark Royal during the Second World War.

Rector of Leeds, the Revd. Canon Tony Bundock said, “I am delighted and privileged that Leeds Parish Church has been asked to be directly involved in this ongoing expression of the long-standing link between HMS Ark Royal and the City of Leeds”.

Long Association

The citizens of Leeds have a long association with HMS Ark Royal dating back to 1942.     The then HMS Ark Royal served in some of the most active naval theatres of the Second World War. She was involved in the first aerial and U-boat kills of the war, operations off Norway, the search for the German battleship Bismarck, and the Malta Convoys. HMS Ark Royal survived several near misses and gained a reputation as a 'lucky ship'. The Germans incorrectly reported her as sunk on multiple occasions. However she was torpedoed on 13 November 1941 by the German submarine U-81 and sank the following day in the west Mediterranean Sea, only 25 nautical miles away from Gibraltar.

Only days earlier Leeds has adopted HMS Ark Royal as part of the Second World War fund raising effort. So “Warship Week” at the beginning of 1942 one such campaign, originally trying to raise £3.5m for major repairs now required £5m for a whole new ship. A march took place down the Headrow with Naval vehicles and personnel. Collections took place, small donations from children and up to £250,000 from one business man managed to raise a total of £9m.

The Freedom of the City parade on Saturday February 12, will commence at 11am outside Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square, marching along the Headrow, around the Victoria Quarter and returning for the Lord Mayor to take the salute outside the Town Hall at approximately 11.30am.

ENDS

Photo- interview opportunity: Leeds Parish Church, Friday 11 February at 2pm, with  Lt Cdr Paul Alderton and the Chaplain of the Ark Royal, Revd Martin Evans who will deliver the hand-crafted chairs from the ship’s Chapel to the Parish Church. Receiving them at that time will be the Rector of Leeds Canon Tony Shepherd.

Further information, contact Revd Canon Tony Bundock, Rector of Leeds:             0113 245 2036

rector@leedsparishchurch.com

Issued by Canon John Carter
Press and Communications Officer, Diocese of Ripon and Leeds

jhgcarter@aol.com
01423 530369 or mobile 07798 652707