Colin Holt (activist)

Colin Holt had an aptitude for generating publicity that he would use throughout his tenure at the Yorkshire Ridings Society. As publicity officer of the Yorkshire Ridings Society, Holt achieved his first publicity coup through his refusal to pay bills addressed to "Fenwick, South Yorkshire" rather than "Fenwick, Yorkshire" or "Fenwick, West Riding". Eventually, after many official letters, British Telecom cut the Holts off. They were not reconnected for several years.[1] After BT was privatized, the company agreed to make the address read "Yorkshire" and the Holts had their telephone back.[4]

He believed strongly in cultural heritage and regional identity. His message was simple and constant: that the sidelining of Yorkshire's ancient North, West and East Ridings, which dated to the 9th century, under local government re-organisation in 1974 was a crime and an insult.

In Colin Holt devised Yorkshire Day,[1][5] falling on August 1, as a celebration of all things Yorkshire. He began the tradition, still continued, for members of the YRS, with white roses in their buttonholes, to make a circuit of the ancient city walls of York, reading out a "Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity". The first of August was chosen as the county day because on that day in 1759 that soldiers from Yorkshire regiments who had fought in the Battle of Minden picked white roses as a tribute to fallen comrades.[3]

Holt married Hilary in 1968. They would remain married for 38 years, until his death of heart failure in 2006.