KEIGHLEY man Joshua Burns was an ambulance driver throughout the First World War.

So it was ironic that just nine days before the end of the war this son of a well-known music seller died from flu.

Joshua was born in Derbyshire but grew up Keighley, son of William Burns who sold pianoforte music from his East Parade shop.

Joshua spent four years at Keighley Boys Grammar School then worked for well-known engineering company George Hattersley and Son.

In 1911 the 25-year-old, by then working in his father’s shop, enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Service and was sent to Portsmouth.

Following an attack of pneumonia Joshua was sent back home, continuing to help his father in the shop before being called up for active service in 1915.

As a member of the Motor Ambulance Convoy he served in Italy, whose leaders had entered the war on the Allied side in 1915.

Many medical units and rest camps were set up across northern Italy behind the front line, particularly in the later stages of the war while Commonwealth troops were fighting the Germans.

Following his death at the age of 32, Joshua was buried locally, at Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery Extension amongst 439 Commonwealth casualties.