HENRY Duff Thomas had already fought in the Boer War when he signed up for service in the First World War.

As a young man he had won the Queen’s South Africa Medal for service in Cape Colony, Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

More than a decade later his army reservist status was due to expire but just months before war was declared he decided to re-engage.

As a result the Scots-born foundry labourer became a driver with the Royal Field Artillery, serving on the front lines.

During the first autumn of the First World War he was posted missing, presumed killed, after his emplacement was overrun.

Henry spent six weeks dodging the enemy, crossing the same river three times in one night by mistake, before reaching safety.

He survived his second war, only to lose his wife Sarah to Hodgkinson’s disease just 11 days after peace was declared.

Settling in Keighley, Thomas endured war-induced bronchitis and laryngitis while spending 23 years working for Keighley diesel engine makers H Widdop and Co Ltd.

Thomas retired from work in 1947 and died eight years later at the age of 74, just a year after wistfully telling the Keighley News of his experiences in Ypres, Mons and Armentieres.