FIVE Flags being flown in York to mark the end of the First World War have been rediscovered 100-years after the end of the conflict.

David Harding’s great grandfather and grandfather displayed a series of flags outside their family drapery shop, GW Harding, on High Ousegate and Coppergate in the city on November 11 1918.

Earlier this month Mr Harding found five of the flags representing countries of the allied forces neatly folded in a drawer at his late mother’s house in York.

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On sale from Wednesday, November 7, our special supplement marking the centenary of the end of the First World War. It costs £1 with 10p from every copy sold going to the Royal British Legion

He then kindly donated them to York Castle Museum, where they will be on display to mark the centenary of the end of the conflict.

Mr Harding said: “The family is delighted that these flags turned up just in time for the Castle Museum to display them on the centenary of the Armistice, and that the museum will then preserve them for the future.

“Fate surely meant it to happen like this.”

Rachael Bowers, assistant curator of social history at York Castle Museum, said: “We are delighted that Mr Harding has donated the series of flags to York Castle Museum.

“It is poignant that they have been rediscovered so close to the centenary and, together with the information Mr Harding has passed on to us, they offer a glimpse of how businesses in the city marked the end of the conflict 100-years-ago.”

The flags, which measure about three foot by six foot, will now go on display in the museum’s First World War exhibition, 1914: When the World Changed Forever.

They represent the countries of Belgium, Serbia, Portugal, Ulster and the Royal Navy’s White Ensign.

Originally Mr Harding said there were flags of other allied forces flown at the shop too, including France, Japan and the USA.