The picture above appears on the front cover of a book titled ‘The Kinmel Park Camp Riots 1919’ by Julian Putkowski published by Flintshire Historical Society in 1989. The book is a detailed study of events surrounding thousands of Canadian soldiers at Kinmel Camp; they had been fighting in the Great War (First World War 1914-18). The war was over and they were agitating to go home.On a Saturday night in November 1919 some who were in a drunken and unruly state began rioting at the camp. The violent unrest went on for two days. Five soldiers were killed, many people were injured, much property was damaged. The picture shows part of the aftermath.
The five soldiers, along with more than 80 of their comrades from the camp who died during a ‘flu epidemic, are buried at the Marble Church in Bodelwyddan.
My thanks to reader George Owen for reminding me about these events and sending an article that he wrote which was published in The Journal on 4 March 2009.
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