Huddersfield - List of Civic Honours and Freedoms

List of Civic Honours and Freedoms

Thirty-four people and one military (infantry) regiment have been granted the Freedom of Huddersfield, between 1889 and 1973.

  • Wright Mellor JP DL – (25 September 1889)
  • Henry Frederick Beaumont JP DL – (28 August 1894)
  • Lt Col Sir Albert Kaye Rollit LLD DLC LittD JP DL – (28 August 1894)
  • James Nield Sykes JP – (12 March 1895)
  • Joseph Woodhead JP – (28 October 1898)
  • Sir Joseph Crosland Knt JP DL – (28 October 1898)
  • Major Charles Brook – (23 May 1901)
  • Major Harold Wilson – (23 May 1901)
  • Sir Thomas Brooke Bart JP DL – (25 July 1906)
  • Rev Robert Bruce MA DD – (25 July 1906)
  • William Brooke JP - (15 October 1913)
  • John Sykes JP – (15 October 1913)
  • William Henry Jessop JP – (18 September 1918)
  • Earnest Woodhead MA JP – (18 September 1918)
  • George Thomson JP – (18 September 1918)
  • Benjamin Broadbent CBE MA JP – (18 September 1918)
  • John Arthur Brooke MA JP – (18 September 1918)
  • James Edward Willans JP – (18 September 1918)
  • Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty GCB OM GCVO DSO – (24 July 1920)
  • The Rt Hon Herbert Henry Asquith Earl of Oxford and Asquith, and Viscount Asquith – (6 November 1925)
  • Sir William Pick Raynor Knt JP – (17 December 1926)
  • Wilfrid Dawson JP – (25 July 1934)
  • Rowland Mitchell JP – (25 July 1934)
  • James Albert Woolven JP Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur – (25 July 1934)
  • Sir Bernard Law Montgomery Field-Marshal GCB DSO – (26 October 1945)
  • Joseph Barlow JP – (23 June 1949)
  • Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) – (2 July 1952)
  • Sidney Kaye LLB – (19 November 1957)
  • Alderman Arthur Gardiner OBE JP – (11 October 1960)
  • Alderman Harry Andrew Bennie Gray CBE JP – (11 October 1960)
  • Sir Malcolm Sargent MusD(Dunelm) MusD(Oxon)(Hons) LLD(Liverpool) Hon RAM Hon FRCO FRCM FRSA – (13 October 1961)
  • The Rt Hon Harold Wilson OBE MP Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury – (1 March 1968)
  • Alderman Douglas Graham CBE – (5 March 1973)
  • Alderman Reginald Harmley MBE JP – (5 March 1973)
  • Alderman Clifford Stephenson – (5 March 1973)

On 2 July 1952, in recognition of historic ties and links with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding), the Huddersfield County Borough had conferred on the regiment the Freedom of the Town. This gave the regiment the right to march through the town with 'flags flying, bands playing and bayonets fixed'. Many of the town and district's male residents had served in the regiment during its long history. This right to march was technically lost when the County Borough itself was merged with Dewsbury to form Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council though, unofficially, continued as on 25 March 1979, Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council gave the Freedom of Kirklees to the 3rd battalion of the Yorkshire Volunteers. The 3rd Battalion was the Duke of Wellington's Territorial Army unit.

When the 'Dukes' were amalgamated with the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and the Green Howards' to form the Yorkshire Regiment on 6 June 2006. The right to march was finally ended as the award did not give the right, for the freedom to march, to be passed on to any heirs or successors. The majority of the Yorkshire Regiment is now composed of soldiers from the north and eastern areas of Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Regiment requested the right to march to be transferred to them. However, the County Borough no longer exists and so there was no authority to do so. The 'Freedom' given by Kirklees to the 3rd battalion of the Yorkshire Volunteers did not permit any transfer to heirs or successors and effectively that freedom also ceased when the battalion was amalgamated into the East and West Riding Regiment. The East and West Riding Regiment ceased to exist on 6 June 2006, having been merged into the Yorkshire Regiment as its 4th Battalion. Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, as successors to the Huddersfield Borough Council, amended the original 'Freedom' and transferred the 'Freedom' to the Yorkshire Regiment, at a Freedom parade on 25 October 2008.

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