CHILDREN’S Christmas parties were all the rage after the Second World War.
At Guard House in 1946, a committee of mothers organised one for 160 youngsters, while another 140 children of police officers took over the Baths Hall. Even the Eastwood Infants’ School Parents-Teachers Association held a party.
These children were being treated by the British Legion, whose Keighley and Victory branches had amalgamated in 1946. Understandably, membership had greatly risen due to the war, with the British Legion nationally dealing with five times more assistance cases in 1945 than in 1939.
This photograph has been supplied by Mrs Shirley Cannon, of Banks Lane, Riddlesden, whose future husband and brother-in-law were in the gathering. Fourth from the left at the very back, a man in a bow tie was local children’s entertainer Harry Whiteoak.
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