THIS is the Eastwood Senior Council School choir, proudly displaying the JW Mitchell Challenge Shield for school choirs which they won at the Keighley Summerscales musical competition in November, 1932.
They had sung The Bells of St Michael’s Tower and Serenade.
Headmaster Harry Whitaker, seen at the left of the third row back, belonged to a musical family – his father conducted the annual Temple Street ‘Messiah’ for decades, and his brother the Temple Ladies’ Choir.
Earlier in 1932 the Eastwood School choir had won a first prize at the Skipton Musical Festival, whilst in 1935 they would bring home trophies from Blackpool, Morecambe, Bradford, Shipley and Huddersfield.
One of his singers, young Grace Medley on the right of the front row, was to recall Mr Whitaker as “a very popular headmaster and choirmaster. His pupils loved and respected him and he was very proud of the choir”.
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