KEIGHLEY men who died at the Battle of the Somme are honoured in an exhibition opening on Saturday. (July 2)

Military history group Men of Worth Project will showcase dozens of local soldiers who fought at the famous First World War battle.

The centrepiece is a display in the upstairs Family History section of Keighley library on North Street.

There will also be pictures and information about 60 individual soldiers displayed in shop windows around the town during the 100th anniversary of the battle.

Volunteers from the Men of Worth Project will be at the library on Saturday to talk to visitors about the battle and the local men involved.

Spokesman Andy Wade said: “We’ll be there all day and would like people to bring in photographs or memories of loved ones who served in wartime. We will scan and return them.”

After Saturday the Men of Worth volunteers will look into the backgrounds of men named by the visitors – using a wealth of paper and online records – then share their research back.

The Somme offensive began on July 1, 1916, and was fought on both sides of the River Somme in France until November 18.

It was the largest battle of World War I on the Western Front, and more than one million men were wounded or killed.

Keighley men showcased in the exhibition include John Edward Adams, 27, a corporal with the Northumberland Fusiliers who was wounded twice before finally being killed during the Somme.

There is also Rowland Hill, a former scoutmaster who was killed along with two comrades when a German shell burst above them while they were working on a communication trench.

Sgt Hill, who grew up in Lothersdale and Silsden, was killed instantly when a piece of shrapnel entered his head.

Another soldier featured in the exhibition is 18-year-old Thomas Walsh, who is named on the family grave in Utley cemetery along with two brothers who died in the First World War.

Thomas had survived war service in Gallipoli and Egypt before being transferred to the Somme, spending three months fighting campaign before being wounded in the leg and dying of septic poisoning.

The Battle of the Somme exhibition has been made possible with funding from Keighley Town Council through its Acorn Fund.

Mr Wade said: “We are very grateful to them for their continuing support for our work. They have never hesitated to help us whenever we have asked.

“The same applies to Bradford Council's support through the library service in hosting the exhibtion. Without the library and its excellent staff headed up by Caroline Brown and Simon Rourke, we'd be struggling to do what we do.”

On Saturday morning there will be a talk about local men who fought at the Somme, and in the afternoon a screening of the 1916 film The Battle Of The Somme loaned by the Imperial War Museum.

The movie, the most-viewed film ever, features , propaganda, partly “staged” scenes of men in training, and actual footage from the trenches.