A MYSTERY girl in a recent Men of Worth column has been revealed as a tragic Haworth soldier’s sweetheart.

The Keighley News last month revealed how Private Horatio Claughton left everything he had to near-neighbour Amelia Denby.

Research by Keighley’s Men of Worth Project suggested a possible romantic connection between Amelia and the First World War soldier.

This was confirmed when Men of Worth volunteer Andy Wade received a call from a woman who read our story and knew Horatio and Amelia in the early 20th century.

Anne Hartley, who lives in Hellifield, confirmed that the couple were engaged before Horatio died on the frontline in France in 1916.

Horatio was born in Yeadon in 1890, moving to Haworth by the age of 10 and a decade later following his father into a job as a tinner and plumber at nearby Merrall and Sons.

Horatio enlisted with the Northumberland Fusiliers in 1915, entering the Balkan theatre in September and serving both in the Dardanelles and Egypt without serious injury.

He was sent to France in the early summer of 1916, seeing action several times before dying of wounds on September 26, aged 27.

In Horatio’s war records, uncovered by Men of Worth Project volunteers, Amelia Denby, also aged 27, was named as receiving his effects.

Andy originally suggested the romantic relationship because the pair both lived Hebden Road and could have walked together to St James’s Church in nearby Cross Roads.

Andy this week said: “Our guess has been proven to be correct and they were sweethearts, and this is why she was down as his legatee in his soldier's will.

“Apparently they used to get dressed up in their finest, and go promenading at Sugden End, where the tip is now.”

Anne used to live in the Haworth area and still buys the Keighley News, Craven Herald and Westmoreland Gazette every week.