CROSS ROADS man William Greenbank was wounded, gassed and suffered from trench fever during three years on the frontline.
But amazingly the Cullingworth-born private in the Scottish Horse regiment survived the entire First World War.
He married Leontina Valentina Beuns a year after the war ended, spent his married life in Cross Roads and nearby Bocking, and died in 1952 when he was nearly 70.
William grew up at Lees Moor Farm and by the age of 15 was a machine fitter apprentice, later becoming a weaver for local textile firm Merrall and Sons.
In 1910, at the age of 24, he became a volunteer with the West Riding Regiment in Haworth and carried out annual training in Ripon and Flamborough head.
His service ‘time expired’ in May 1914 – but within months war broke and he enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery.
William was not sent to France until December the following year, by that time a member of the Scottish Horse.
The Keighley News of May 4, 1918, recorded that William had been gassed and was in hospital at Seaton in Devonshire.
William is remembered on the Cross Roads Primitive Methodist Sunday School roll of honour which is in the archives at Keighley Library.
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