A COLNE Valley museum owner was horrified by the theft of a Union Flag on Remembrance Sunday.

Mr John Garside hung the flag 12ft up on the roof of a lean-to at the Bullecourt Military Museum at Scar Lane, Milnsbridge, on Saturday morning.

But on Monday morning he found the flag had gone.

Mr Garside said: "It's only a low-life that would do something like steal a flag or a wreath or anything on Remembrance Sunday.

"It would have to be someone very young or agile.

"They would have to climb over our gates and shin 12ft up to get it."

Mr Garside, who was a member of the Territorial Army, used a ladder to attach the flag from a bracket on the lean-to roof.

It normally hangs from the gates of the museum while it is open.

But the museum was closed as a mark of respect on Remembrance Sunday.

Mr Garside was involved in organising the ceremony at the war memorial in Lewisham Road, Slaithwaite, on Sunday morning .

The flag was not especially expensive and Mr Garside estimates it would have cost about £6 to buy.

He said: "I shall get a new one. They will not beat me.

"But it seems a shame that people will stoop so low as to steal the flag that other people sacrificed their lives defending."