The present Whitley Bay, North Shields & District branch is an amalgamation of a number of branches which were formed in North Shields, Whitley Bay, Tynemouth and Monkseaton.
One of the two North Shields branches has been in existence from it's formation in 1921, closely followed by the Whitley Bay branch.
This means the Royal British Legion has had a continuous presence in the North Tyneside coastal area for over 100 years.
The branch was formed when on the 28th of June 1921 the North Shields branch of the Comrades of the Great War held a special meeting in their club at 18 Howard Street in North Shields. At the meeting it was decided by unanimous vote to carry out the resolutions passed at the national conference, namely that on the 30th of June 1921 all ex-servicemen’s societies would become branches of the British Legion.
While no definitive date has been found for the formation of the Whitley Bay branch as yet, a story in the local newspaper in April 1922 mentions the Whitley Bay branch president so the branch must have been in existence at the time.
On Saturday the 6th of October 1923 the Tynemouth Branch officially opened their new headquarters at 10 Lovaine Place in North Shields, it was a joint premises shared with the United Services Club.
On the 28th of January 1950 the Whitley Bay and Monkseaton branch officially opened their new headquarters and club at 42 Victoria Terrace in Whitley Bay. The building had been the Victoria Social Club and before that a dairy.
In November 1957 a second branch was formed in North Shields. The new estate branch covered the Balkwell area and was based in the library classroom of Collingwood primary school.
This was quite a short lived branch and when it closed it merged with the other North Shields branch to become the North Shields & District branch.
In 1971 the North Shields and District branch opened a new headquarters and club at 9a Howard Street to coincide with the golden anniversary of the formation of the British Legion. At the same time the British Legion was awarded the Royal prefix as a thank you for all of its work supporting veterans over the past 50 years. This meant that all of the branches changed their names to become the Royal British Legion.
In March 1972 the local press reported the opening of 36 Royal British Legion flats in Battle Hill. The flats were and still are known as the Duke of Northumberland Court and were built by the Royal British Legion Housing Association to provide homes for ex-servicemen in the area.
Birth of a New Branch
On the 16th of August 2009 the North Shields branch standard was laid up in St Columbus Church in North Shields.
The Whitley Bay standard was also laid up and the two branches merged to form the Whitley Bay, North Shields & District branch.
Later that year, in October 2009, the Whitley Bay branch was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the Borough by North Tyneside Council. The newspapers referred to the Whitley Bay branch however the two branches had merged by this time.
A booklet telling a much more detailed version of the story of our branch was produced for our centenary, it can be downloaded using the link below.
Branch History Booklet
