WILSDEN teenager Thomas James Mitchell was groomed for officership after joining the Yorkshire Hussars in 1915.

Thomas joined the Officer Training Corps while at Leeds University studying for the Civil Service examination.

Within three months he was sent to France – and 12 months after joining the army he was killed in action at the age of 20.

Thomas was born in North Bierley, where his father was a grocer, but by the age of four the family were in Wilsden where Thomas senior was both a grocer and draper.

Living in Main Street with his parents and three sisters, Thomas travelled to Keighley to attend the Boys Grammar School and was destined for great things.

He was at university when war broke out in 1914, but it was almost a year before he joined the Officer Training Corps and went on to become a Second Lieutenant.

It is believed that Thomas was among three officers killed in July 1916, during a successful attack on German lines at Contalmaison.

The Keighlian, the magazine of the Boys Grammar School, wrote: “Thomas Mitchell was a young man of sterling character who was equally keen in studies and sport.

“He was a member of the School Football Eleven during his last years at school.”