THESE wartime members of Keighley 100 Squadron of the Air Training Corps were photographed outside their headquarters in the former United Methodist Free Church in Cavendish Street.
The corps had been formed in 1939, aiming at “the creation of a body of disciplined and interested young men who, on completion of their training, would be of immediate service in the event of a crisis.”
Closed for worship in 1937, this building was equipped with a Flying Flea engine, a bomb sight and camera gun turret, bomb racks and a parachute, and for a while even a DH Puss Moth light aeroplane. Cadets learned wireless and Morse code, fired on a miniature rifle range and practised repairing fabric on wing sections. Their training included flights from “a northern air station”.
The photograph has been supplied by David Seeley, of Cliffe Court, Keighley.
He joined the squadron shortly after the war, and remembers drilling in a basement with large patches of mould on the walls. The old church would be demolished in 1952.
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