Letter from Alfred Woods to John Ritchie's secretary, 12 May 1919

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from Alfred Woods to John Ritchie's secretary, 12 May 1919

1 war 17 Heytesbury Street,
South Circular Road,
Dublin,
Ireland, 12/5/'19. The Secretary, The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor.,
City of Liverpool. Sir, I would be much obliged if you
would draw his Lordship's attention
to the fact that I was connected with
the 15th Battalion of the King's Liverpool
Regiment in England and the 1/5th
Battalion of the Regiment from March
1916 to December 1917, and during that
time received many insults and unwarrant-
able treatment from some of the low
classes of Liverpool people in the Regiment 2 352 MAY/1/1 just because I was Irish. They seemingly
possessed orange leanings and the
antipathy and bigotry they showed
towards Irishmen made it most unbearable
for me whilst in his Majesty's Forces.
I believe myself the more responsible
citizens of your great city would not up-
hold the conduct of such people against
Irishmen who happened to live and fight
with them. Let it be hoped that people
totally different to a strange community
in religion, race and political sentiments
will in future be safeguarded against
coming in contact with its rabble element. Liverpool can really initiate a
move in this direction, because speaking
on my own account I regret to state
that I suffered from the abuses of the
class of Orange Liverpool citizen whom
I have already described. Yours most truly,
Alfred Woods (Journalist & younger son of the late Mr. James Woods, Freeman's Journal, Dublin

This letter was written by an Irish soldier who experienced racial harassment while serving in the British army. Alfred Woods states that "Orangemen" in his battalion offended him. Interestingly, this letter is part of a collection of government correspondence relating to the Liverpool Race Riots (termed "colour riots" by contemporaries) of 1919. After the end of the First World War, many former soldiers from all regions of the British Empire were struggling to adjust to civilian life. As they often sought employment in vain or waited to be repatriated, conflicts escalated between "foreign" ex-servicemen and the local population. People of colour or those who housed them were attacked. Buildings were set on fire. The documents kept by the Liverpool Record Office reflect the concerns of the demobilised soldiers as well as the authorities' efforts to restore peace.

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How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__5965.html)