2019 is well under way now (well, it's a week old). Many of us are wondering just what kind of a year it will turn out to be.

Sadly, we don't know the answer to that. But we can at least look back at the last century that ended with a 19.

1919 was a year of celebrating and of remembering: celebrating the end of the terrible war that had torn the world apart for four long years, and remembering the sacrifices that had been made.

To mark the end of the The Great War (as the First World War was then known) the year before, a bank holiday and 'peace day' was declared for July 1, 1919. But across the country, many communities continued to stage their own peace celebrations, including street parties, throughout July and well into August. There were several such street parties in York in August - as well as what was clearly a moving 'York Comrades Memorial'.

In some ways, and despite the years of war, the modern world had yet to intrude upon the York of 1919. There was still a ferry across the River Ouse at Water End, not a bridge: and attached to the Unicorn Inn on Lord Mayor's Walk there was an organisation which gloried in the name of the Boys' Jovial Club. Judging by the photograph we have of club members, they were mainly rather grown-up boys: this clearly was not a children's organisation. But they, too, were in a mood for celebration. The photo was taken in August 1919 during a 'peace excursion' which presumably celebrated the end of the war a year earlier.

So 1919 was a year of looking back. But it was also a year of new beginnings. Development was under way at Joseph Rowntree's model village of New Earswick. And that same year, an air force biplane touched down at Knavesmire for the first time, ushering in the new age of air travel.

Or did it? The photograph is captioned 'Royal Flying Corps' first visit to York, 23 Feb 19'. But by 1919 the RFC had already become the RAF (which was founded on April 1, 1918, from the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service). And according to the online History of York, the first aeroplane to land in York - one piloted by Captain Longcroft of the Royal Flying Corps - touched down at Knavesmire in February 1913, where thousands of people had gathered to witness the landing.

So we suspect our photo may date from 1913, rather than 1919. But it's still a great picture...

Stephen Lewis