FRED LOCKWOOD’S wife will have known what to expect when a letter from the War Office arrived at her Oxenhope home in early August 1916.

Her mother and father-in-law, living in the same village, had received a similar communication when Fred’s brother Harry Bates was killed in action the previous year.

And sure enough, the message told how Sgt Lockwood had died on July 23 from wounds received the day before.

Fred, 30, the eldest of six brothers with another one also serving in France, left four young children fatherless.

A keen football player with Oxenhope, Haworth, and Keighley clubs, he had signed up for the West Riding Regiment as soon as war was declared in 1914, and entered France the following April.

Fred’s widow may have gained some consolation from sympathy letters received from his Commandingofficers a few days after the War Office memo arrived.

Captain TC Rapp said:““He was absolutely fearless, and always thought of his men before himself.

“I have twice recommended him for distinction, and was expecting that at any moment he would be awarded the Military Medal for continued good service.”

Captain Haigh wrote: “He ought to have had the Victoria Cross for the splendid way he carried on out there.”