Mitchell became an Honorary member of the Yorkshire Dales Society, later President and the Society's first Patron. Bill Mitchell was always been a keen naturalist and this interest infused his writing over many years. He was associated with the British Deer Society, The Yorkshire Naturalist Trust, the Cumbrian Wild Life Trust, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and was a founder member of the Royal Naval Bird Watching Society. He also received a Golden Eagle Award in 2007 from the Outdoor Writers’ and Photographers’ Guild, which cited him as one of the founding fathers of outdoor writing. In September 2009 he was voted 'Greatest Living Icon' for the Yorkshire Dales National Park in a poll by this organisation to mark the 60th anniversary of the National Parks. The following year, May 2010, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dalesman Rural Awards Ceremony in Harrogate for his work in recording the history, heritage and wildlife of the Yorkshire Dales and Moors. In April 2014, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Dalesman, he was voted no 33 in a poll to find the 75 Greatest Icons of Yorkshire. He wrote a regular column in the Bradford 'Telegraph & Argus' newspaper for several years: 'Letter from the Dales'; he was also a regular contributor to the North Yorkshire 'Craven Herald' newspaper (History Pages); and had a monthly feature in the Dalesman:'Dalesfolk I Remember'(see Media Coverage links, below). He died at Airedale General Hospital on 7 October 2015, aged 87. W. R. Mitchell Archive The majority of Mitchell's cassette tapes of Dales life are deposited in the University of Leeds (Special Collections) library. The University has a large collection of oral histories as part of The Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture (survey of English dialects). These cassette tapes feature interviews, including those conducted with the author, Alfred Wainwright, and with Alf Wight, more commonly known as ‘James Herriot’, as well as interviews with people who had known Beatrix Potter. These taped stories range from those told by the local gentry - such as the Dawsons of the Folly in Settle, and the Yorkes of Halton Place - to ordinary folk living in remote Dales communities. They also present a record of different Dales accents and dialects used over forty years ago and which, because of greater social mobility, are less frequently heard today. The Leeds Archive collection also