Songs of tribute on saddest visit

Sep 23 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT was a poignant moment.

Raymond Steel lovingly placed flowers on the grave of the grandfather he never knew.

He rested one hand on the white headstone which records that Private L. Steel, a member of the Prince of Wales’s Own West Yorkshire Regiment, died on July 20th, 1918.

Around him in perfect symmetry are rows upon rows of splendidly maintained graves and headstones marking the final resting place of hundreds of other soldiers who were killed in battles in and around Ypres, Belgium.

Raymond, a member of the tenor section of the Honley Male Voice Choir, was born 21 years after the death at the age of 36 of his grandfather Luther, who lived in Cable Street, Huddersfield, with his wife Lillian and three children and drove a horse-drawn delivery van for the Huddersfield Industrial Society.

Raymond, of The Cottage, Nab Farm, Holmfirth, always promised himself that one day he would visit Luther’s grave.

His chance came when nearly 30 members of the choir went on a four-day social trip by coach to Bruges which included a visit to Ypres.