Two war heroes are finally to be honoured in Huddersfield - 70 years on.
Officials of Huddersfield Rugby Union Club have discovered the names of two former players who gave their lives in the Second World War are not on the club memorial.
Now they plan to right the wrong but need help to find family of one of the men.
The two former players were Harry Fletcher and Johnnie Taylor, and although the club have managed to find details of former Royal Corps of Signals man Fletcher they cannot find details of Mr Taylor.
The search is being led by club official Richard Sykes, who discovered about the missing names purely by chance.
He was at a Huddersfield Town game and sat next to Malcolm Purdy. As the pair chatted, it emerged that Mr Purdy’s uncle played for the Huddersfield RUFC before the war.
“Malcolm told me that his uncle used to play but sadly was killed in action in North Africa in the early 1940’s.
“I knew the rugby club has a war memorial on the clubhouse wall with pictures of members who died in both World Wars on it. Each year a copy is printed in the club handbook and I duly promised to pass one on to Malcolm for him to keep.
“When I looked up his uncle, for some unknown reason he is not featured. I researched the club history and archives to try to find out why and discovered that his uncle’s death was reported in committee minutes along with the deaths of eight other servicemen who were former players. Strangely though only seven names and photographs appear on the club memorial.
“I also found that a year earlier, three former players who were in the RAF had all been killed and found only two on the memorial. The other missing name is John (Johnnie) Taylor.
“Malcolm’s uncle, Harry Fletcher was a soldier in the Royal Corps of Signals and a press cutting from the ‘Examiner’ announcing his death is inserted in the rugby club minute book alongside written reference to his passing.
“We want to include the details of these two men on the memorial but nothing is known about Johnnie Taylor”.
Club officials have found that with Taylor being a common name it has proved difficult to find anything out. There were 23 men with that name serving in the RAF who , died in the war in 1940 and 1941.
Now they have appealed to any relatives of Mr Taylor to come forward.Mr Sykes said: “We need a picture of J MTaylor to finish our memorial. 70 years on it would be nice if we could add our missing old boys to our tribute”.
Mr Sykes can be contacted via email on r.k.sykes2@gmail.com or by phone on 07587 253501.
