From Huddersfield to the fields of Flanders, they wore their poppies with pride.
People across Kirklees fell silent yesterday to remember the dead of conflicts stretching back more than a century.
In parks and schools, in libraries and at cenotaphs young and old gathered to pay tribute to those that never returned home from the battlefield.
In Greenhead Park a record 600 people including veterans, schoolchildren and students were involved in the laying of more than 30 wreaths. Those attending included Mayor of Kirklees Jim Doods and his wife Carol, Honley MP Jason McCartney, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of West Yorkshire Tim Hare and, from Huddersfield & District Army Veterans Association, Captain Ian Fillan and Major Stephen Armitage, The service was led by the Rev Canon Simon Moor and the Bishop of Huddersfield, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gibbs, gave a short address.
For the third year running at Sainsbury’s Shorehead 25 veterans were given lunch as a thank you for their fundraising on behalf of the British Legion’s poppy appeal. Richard Brook, president of the Huddersfield branch of the British Legion, said the event was unique across the country and attracted more veterans each year.
And at Kirkburton Library local historians, relatives of nursing staff and representatives from the British Red Cross and the Order of St John unveiled a memorial board to the women of the Voluntary Aid Detachment who worked at Kirkburton Military Hospital. The volunteers, known as VADs, treated 765 soldiers between 1915 and 1918.
The hospital took over a territorial army drill hall on Shelley Lane that had been used by ‘G’ Company, 5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s regiment. The building, later a doctor’s surgery, has since been demolished.
The enormity of the carnage of the Great War was experienced at a distance of 100 years by two year 10 students from North Huddersfield Trust School as part of the government funded Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme.
Leah Hirst and Sireen Zafar, both 14, accompanied by history teacher Gary Deighton, reconnected with two local heroes from the Fartown area who died during World War I.
Private Roy Sayles, of Whitestone Lane, Hillhouse, was killed on July 28, 1916, during the Somme offensive. As his body was never found his name is listed on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in Picardy, France.
Private James Henry Ramsden, who had lived at 495 Bradford Road, Fartown, was killed on October 4, 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele.
Both girls explored preserved battlefields, trench systems, museums, and spent time in quiet reflection in military cemeteries.
Sireen described the experience as “life-changing”, adding, “It’s made me more thankful and appreciative of the soldiers who lost their lives during the Great War”.
