It is ironic that members of Hull's recently arrived Kurdish community are probably more aware of Sir Mark Sykes than most of the city's indigenous population.
A member of a land-owning East Yorkshire family based at Sledmere House, Sykes was elected as MP for Hull Central in 1911.
At the start of the First World War he became the commanding officer of a reserve unit he helped form known as Waggoner's Special Reserve.
It comprised of 1,000 men drawn largely from local farms who were among the first to be sent to the frontline, driving horse-drawn wagons with supplies of food, fodder and ammunition.
Sykes's role in the conflict took a new turn in 1915 when he was called to the War Office by Lord Kitchener to carry out diplomatic and intelligence work.
Still an MP, he was recruited as a result of his knowledge of the Middle-East formed through earlier travels in the area as a writer and political commentator.
A year later, he worked with French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot on a secret deal to ensure that in the event of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire – which had sided with Germany – its territories would be divided up into separate Arab states operating under British and French control or influence.
Sykes also provided some personal touches to the deal.
He was behind the idea of reviving ancient Greek and Roman names for different regions in the new-look Middle-East, including Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
He also designed the so-called Flag of the Arab Revolt, which was used to unify Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire.
Variations of the flag's combination of black, green, red and white colours still feature in the flags of Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Kuwait, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.
What became known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement has subsequently been viewed as the trigger point for just about every Middle-East conflict since the end of the First World War.
It was kept secret because the British had already proposed entirely different things to other people, notably the Arabs.
It also confirmed British support for the idea of creating a Zionist state in Palestine.
Sykes himself was re-elected as Hull's MP in 1918 but died a year later after contracting a deadly influenza virus.
Last month, the Islamic State tweeted: "Smashing Sykes- Picot" as its forces swept through the Iran-Syria border.
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