Kinmel Camp

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Kinmel Camp is an army training ground in what was once the grounds of Kinmel Hall, near Abergele, in Conwy, North Wales. A railway line served the camp from 1915 until 1964[1]. First World War training trenches can be seen nearby in the grounds of Bodelwyddan Castle.

It is notable for the Kinmel Camp Riot on 4/5 March 1919, in which 20,000 war weary soldiers expressed their anger at their treatment at the end of the First World War. The riot broke out in the Canadian section of the camp, and lasted for a night and a day. Five men were killed, and 23 were injured, including two subalterns. It was reported that the men were angry that several boats to Canada had been cancelled, and were also annoyed that promises that those men who had enlisted first would be sent home first had not been honoured^[1].

The five Canadian troops killed during the riot were buried in the graveyard of Bodelwyddan church among other Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials. Most of the war graves are casualties of the Spanish flu pandemic.