THIS was the string section of the Keighley and District Orchestral Society, photographed in the 1930s. Fourth from the left in the second row back sits leader Arthur Lloyd, who had played first violin since the orchestra's formation and had conducted for some years after the death of founder-conductor JB Summerscales in 1923. Fifth from the left on the same row is George Firth, conductor from 1931 to 1942.

Founded in 1898, the Keighley and District Orchestral Society put on its first public concert the following year with 60 performers, their number soon increasing to 80. In 1907 Sir Henry Wood had been a guest conductor.

The orchestra attracted other famous musical names. The two ladies standing third and fourth from the left on the third row back were Mrs Emma Slater and Miss Jessie Burns, both of whom had played with the second violins in the inaugural concert of 1899 and had graduated to first violins by 1904, when visiting solo pianist was composer Percy Grainger.

In 1903 Mrs Slater had played in the orchestra which accompanied the Keighley Musical Union when composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor came to conduct his Hiawatha in Keighley.