KEIGHLEY soldier Arthur Heaton Scott was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry in France.

In a letter home he told his parents he had “received the ribbon” but gave no details of what he had done to deserve it.

Walter and Minnie never found out, for just one month later their son was killed when a mortar bomb landed in his trench.

The recently-promoted Lance Corporal was one of four local men killed in the explosion on November 20, 1916.

Arthur had been born in Keighley in 1896, and by the age of 15 was working as an iron borer for a Keighley machine-tool maker.

In 1913, while working for Haggas and Smith, he attested for the West Riding Regiment, and the following year he signed up for overseas service.

Arthur was sent to France with the 6th Battalion in April 1915, his first year of service uneventful except a bout of sore feet.

Following Arthur’s death that Lieutenant Godfrey Buxton told his parents he had always been the first to volunteer for dangerous work.

Arthur is remembered in Keighley’s Great War roll of honour book in Keighley Library and on the Sun Street Methodist Church war memorial, currently held in storage at Cliffe Castle Museum.