Here's how the Harrogate Herald newspaper reported the end of the First World War

Without the technology of today, worried families at home waiting for news of their loved ones had to rely on letters from the front, as well as the local newspaper.

The Harrogate Herald played a crucial role during the war years. Owner, W. H. Breare, dedicated himself to ensuring the most up-to-date telegrams were published every Wednesday and posted in the windows of the Herald offices. Letters from soldiers on the front line, or letters from their parents, who had been informed of their son’s death, were published.

Copies of the Herald were shipped out to Harrogate comrades to give them the news from back home wherever possible, and their gratitude for that service is evidenced in the historic pages kept in our archives.

Acting as a go-between from the trenches to the families back home, soldiers would often write in asking for supplies to be sent. On one occasion, a group of Harrogate lads in the West Yorkshire Regiment complained that their football had burst and pleaded for a replacement to be sent.

And when the Armistice was finally signed, Breare wrote of the mixed emotions that gripped the town; joy at the war’s end but sadness for those who would never return.

His article on Wednesday, November 13, written over a number of days like a series of diary entries, under the headline ‘To our boys in service’ gives us an insight into how the town marked the end of the war.