ONE of Keighley's last remaining pre-war rugby stars has died aged 97.

Harry Pamment played scrum-half for the Keighlians from 1935 to 1939, winning a place in the team when he was just 16 years old.

A celebrated player whose performances generated headlines like 'Pamment Shines' in the local press, he was a sportsman through and through.

But when he dislocated the thumb of his writing hand during a match, his employers at CWS Ironworks, Keighley, made him promise to abandon his rugby career, and as a working class boy he couldn't refuse.

In 1940 Mr Pamment joined the 3rd Battalion London Scottish to fight in the Second World War.

He took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and landed on the beaches at Reggio, where he saw a neighbouring troop wiped out by a bomb that landed just 20 yards away from his position.

Then, during eight days of embarkation leave in November 1942, he married his sweetheart Irene Hall at a wedding reception which cost £2 8s 9p.

They wouldn't see each other again for more than three years.

Mr Pamment went on to fight in the Battle of Monte Casino as a sergeant in the 97th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery.

Mr Pamment was an intelligent and artistic man who left Keighley Boys Grammar having passed his School Certificate with a distinction.

Prevented from attending art school by his parents, who felt he would end up with few prospects, he found peace after the war by painting.

A favourite subject matter was the deer he saw on walking holidays in Braemar, Scotland. He used to get up two hours before breakfast to wander about as the sun rose, collecting antlers which he fashioned into walking sticks.

Thought of affectionately as a bit of an eccentric, Mr Pamment was obsessed with opera and was known to sleep outside in the garden so that he could see the stars.

The latter part of his working life was spent at Bradford and Bingley as a securities manager. Good at maths and well respected, he turned down a big promotion at the firm because it meant moving from Keighley to Birmingham.

Indeed such was his love for Keighley, until his final years Mr Pamment never lived more than half a mile from the home he grew up in on Ingrow Lane.

He leaves behind his wife Irene, his two sons David and Neil Pamment, his daughter Gillian Ferguson, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.