SHEFFIELD'S MILITARY LEGACY

Steel production and downstream manufacturing would be perpetually embedded in the military legacy of this seat of industrial innovation and production. The Vickers steel foundry was established in Sheffield in 1828. Following the manufacture of the factory's first artillery in 1890, Sheffield expanded to find itself a leading supplier in the First World War, feeding the military with shells, artillery, naval guns, armour plating, aircraft parts, torpedoes, helmets and bayonets. A proud tradition of answering a call to the colours spawned the 84th Regiment of Foot, the Loyal Independent Sheffield Volunteers of the 1700s, the Hallamshire Rifle Volunteers raised in 1859, and the Sheffield Squadron, Yeomanry Cavalry. The 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer War would also have an enduring legacy - the Sheffield Wednesday Football Stadium was named Spion Kop, while local road names include Ladysmith Avenue and Mafeking Place. On 1st July 1916, the Sheffield City Battalion fought in an heroic and costly but hopeless action on the Somme to capture the village of Serre. Through the Second World War right up to Afghanistan, the city's men and women in uniform have not been found wanting. The York and Lancaster Regiment elected to disband when the British Army was reorganised in 1968, only one of two regiments to do so. The colours were laid up for the last time in the Regiment's own St. George's Memorial Chapel in Sheffield Cathedral. The uniquely titled Hallamshires would in the Second World War ensure that Sheffield's military pride will be indelibly inscribed in perpetuity in the city's legacy. They proudly wore the polar bear shoulder patch that identified them as members of the 49th Division, and from the frozen Norwegian and Icelandic theatres to North-West Europe, the battalion led the division across the Seine, the Dutch border, and finally the Rhine as the war drew to a close. 128 page very well illustrated large paperback, with eight pages of colour images and maps.