| AdminHistory | The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945 as a replacement body to the League of Nations, which was wound up following its perceived failure to prevent the Second World War. The United Nations was set up with the express aim of preventing wars between countries and to provide a platform for peaceful cooperation and dialogue between nations.
Upon the formation of the United Nations, the United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK), a successor to the League of Nations Union (LNU), was set up following a meeting in London on 24 May 1945. It held its first official meeting at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 October 1945. The UNA-UK is a voluntary, UK-wide, membership-based, non-governmental organisation, working to campaign for and promote the principles of the UN Charter, aiming to support the work of the UN and help turn its ideals into reality.
The United Nations Association in Sheffield (UNA Sheffield) is a regional branch of the UNA-UK network. It was also founded in 1945 as the United Nations Association (Sheffield District). In continuity with its predecessor organisation, the League of Nations Union (Sheffield District), its President was the Bishop of Sheffield (Rev. L S Hunter), its Chairman, Alderman F Thraves, and its Honorary Secretaries, Miss Gertrude Ward and Mr E G G Lyon.
The organisation retained the same structure as the League of Nations Union (Sheffield District), with the organisation secretary's office based at the same premises, 14 St James' Row Sheffield, and the same three branches: Sheffield Branch (with its office based at 42 Guest Road and its President Alderman F Thraves); Hallam Branch (with its office based at Endcliffe Vale House and its Chairman Sir Samuel Osborn); Firth Park (with its office based at 4 Patmore Road and its Chairman Mr W Padfield). By 1947, in addition to a Central Branch at 14 St James Row, local branches had been established at Brightside, Ecclesall, Hallam and the Park. By 1951, a Dore and Totley Branch had opened, with Mr E M Pratt as President, whilst a 'UNATS' group had also formed which held its meetings at the International Centre, Sheffield.
During the 1970s, the UNA Sheffield network consisted (at varying stages) of branches at: Bradway (merged in 1975 with Dore and Totley to form the Dore, Totley and Bradway Branch), Greenhill and Norton; Dearne Valley (merged in 1977 with Rotherham to form the Dearne Valley with Rotherham Branch); Chapeltown and District; Dore and Totley (merged in 1975 with Bradway to form the Dore, Totley and Bradway Branch); Ecclesfield; Granville; Hallam; Millhouses and Ecclesall; Retford; Rotherham (merged in 1977 with Dearne Valley to form the Dearne Valley with Rotherham Branch). There was also a UNA Youth Group. In the 1980s, branches at Barnsley and Doncaster were also fleetingly affiliated to the UNA Sheffield network.
By 1997, the structure of UNA Sheffield consisted of a District Council in Sheffield, with a district branch and two other surviving branches: 1. Hallam; 2. Dore, Totley and Bradway. (There was also a nascent branch at Sheffield Hallam University.) Faced with the issues of falling membership, and the difficulties of sustaining a continually changing student membership, the organisation was forced to restructure. In June 1997, the separate branches were dissolved and UNA Sheffield was reorganised into a single body serving the whole city and surrounding area. A new constitution, adopted on 2 June 1997, details how the new body for the Sheffield Branch of the United Nations Association was to be known as the 'United Nations Association in Sheffield.' This itself was dissolved in September 2012 due to falling membership numbers and a lack of younger members to carry its work forward.
Over the years, UNA Sheffield has campaigned from a local level on a range of global issues, striving for greater public and governmental support for the UN in its work in conflict prevention, peace-keeping, global environment protection, the eradication of poverty and safeguarding human rights. It has been involved in numerous projects and activities including: welcoming refugees and immigrants to Sheffield (including those from Europe to Sheffield in the years after 1945, from Hungary following the 1956 uprising, and later people from Caribbean and Somali communities); taking part in UNA-UK work camps in UK and Europe; helping to establish an agricultural college in Kenya in 1966; sending an agricultural worker to help on a water-conservation project on the edge of the Sahara in Burkina Faso (c.1994) and a nurse to work for a year with blind children in Bangladesh; encouraging the use of teaching packs in local schools; holding regular meetings with local MPs; lobbying parliament and writing to British and other governments on a range of UN issues such as conflicts in Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s.
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| Description | Records for:
UNA Sheffield (previously Sheffield District Council of the UNA):
Minutes, 1966 - 2004 (X 7/1/1)
Correspondence, 1991 - 2004 (X 7/1/2)
Programmes and Newsletters, 1970 - 2004 (X 7/1/3)
Membership Papers, 1985 - 2012 (X 7/1/4)
Finance Papers, 1991 - 2004 (X 7/1/5)
UNA Hallam Branch:
Meeting Papers, 1977 - 1997 (X 7/2/1)
Correspondence, 1976 - 1997 (X 7/2/2)
Newsletters/Annual Reports, 1972 - 1997 (X 7/2/3)
Finance/Membership Papers, 1932 - 1997 (X 7/2/4)
UNA Dore, Totley and Bradway Branch (previously UNA Dore and Totley Branch):
Minutes, 1954 - 1997 (X 7/3/1)
Correspondence, 1994 - 1997 (X 7/3/2)
Programmes, 1993 - 1997 (X 7/3/3)
Membership Papers, c.1984 (X 7/3/4)
Finance Papers, 1975 - 1997 (X 7/3/5)
Other Records (unlisted):
(Acc. 2009/47)
Correspondence file re UNA Sheffield work with universities and schools, Jan 1995 - Jul 2002. |
| CustodialHistory | These items were deposited in Sheffield Archives in October 2002, October 2003, January 2006, October 2008 and August 2016. |