Friends of Harehills Cemetery Chapel - Remembrance Sunday

Update to members and supporters, Remembrance weekend 2026

This year, Remembrance Sunday falls on 8th November. On that same date, 8th November 1908, Harehills Cemetery recorded its first burial. How could those who created this place of remembrance have any conception that it would become the final resting place for men and women whose lives were sacrificed in the Great War, the Second World War, and other conflicts? May each one rest in peace.

As confirmed by the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Harehills Cemetery holds 331 war graves: 177 from the First World War and 147 from the Second, including at least two women who served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Many of the war dead are named at the cemetery’s main memorial, and many lie in individual graves scattered across the cemetery, easily missed by a passing visitor but visible to those with the interest and energy to locate them. Perhaps one day in the future, Friends of Harehills Cemetery Chapel might be able to develop a proper walking trail, to tell the stories of the men and women behind these scattered graves, so that they are never forgotten.

Harehills Cemetery Chapel has been integral to the cemetery since it was first built, and today it holds a central position among the graves — built to serve the living who gather there to remember, and the dead they come to honour. This matters for our campaign. The chapel is woven into the very fabric of Harehills Cemetery as an active burial ground. It cannot simply be carved off and sold without regard for the community who it has served for over a century and who continue to hold it deeply in their hearts. Whilst other cemetery buildings have been discarded, Harehills Cemetery Chapel must not suffer the same fate.

Our campaign keeps moving. Two petitions calling on Leeds City Council to stop the sale have now passed 1,386 signatures combined, and are still growing without any active promotion. The chapel was withdrawn from the October auction following local campaigning, our Asset of Community Value nomination has been formally acknowledged by the council, and a Historic England listing application is also under consideration. None of this means the chapel is safe yet, but it means the council has had to stop and listen.

So if we want the council to pay attention, we have to keep raising our voices and letting them know how we feel about their proposed sale and community ideas for its future. If you have not yet joined Friends of Harehills Cemetery Chapel, or signed the petition, or you know someone who has not, this weekend would be a fitting moment to ask them to get involved. Joining the Friends group matters most of all — because it is members, not signatures alone, who will carry this campaign forward.

Join Friends of Harehills Cemetery Chapel: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/4iWAZpfATy

Thank you, as ever, for standing with the chapel and the people it was built to remember.

— Friends of Harehills Cemetery Chapel