Popular historian heading for Uppermill

Saddleworth Peace Group will welcome local feminist historian Dr Ali Ronan

Saddleworth Peace Group has revealed that local feminist historian Dr Ali Ronan has agreed to give a talk about the Women’s Peace Crusade movement.

The event will tell the fascinating stories of some of the hitherto unknown women who led local crusades in this area.

It will take place at Uppermill library on Saturday, May 19, between 11am and 12.30pm.

The event is free to attend and all are welcome.

From 2016, particularly after the battle of the Somme, until the end of the war in 2018, a women’s peace crusade movement that urged the Government to negotiate a peace spread across the country, sweeping through Oldham and the surrounding area in the summer of 1917.

Research – by Ali and a large team of researchers - has uncovered many ‘ordinary’ crusaders, the local and ‘unheard’ women whose stories had previously been hidden from history.

Their stories are now recorded in a film and in a book - The Women’s Peace Crusade 1917 – 1918: Crusading Women in Manchester and East Lancashire - which will be available to buy at the event.

Ali and some of the other researchers on the team will speak about the making of the film, their research, and will tell some of the stories that were uncovered about the local activists and conscientious objectors in our area.

There will also be a chance to look at archival and research material and to talk to the researchers.