THE FAMILY history of a Sutton war hero has come to light after an appeal by Keighley military historians.

A descendant of Edgar Green has revealed what happened to other members of his family after he died near the end of the First World War.

Pensioner Maureen Green has also explained how a photograph of Private Green came to be in a skip in the centre of Sutton.

Volunteers from the Men of Worth Project researched Edgar’s war experiences after the picture was discovered in the skip by six-year-old passer-by Aaron Hudson.

The Keighley News subsequently carried a story of Edgar’s heroism in the weekly Men of Worth column based on Men of Worth research.

Sgt Green, a peacetime gear cutter at Fleece Mills in Keighley, received a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for rescuing trapped comrades while under enemy fire. He survived being injured twice during the first World War, but his luck ran out in 1918.

Men of Worth leading light Andy Wade issued an appeal for information about Edgar’s descendants so he could give the picture to his family.

Maureen subsequently called the Keighley News to reveal that she had married Edgar’s nephew Ralph many years ago and she still lived in Sutton.

Edgar and his brother Allan were both gear cutters before the First World War and, five years after the Armistice, Allan established a gear-making business.

Allan’s son Ralph joined the business after taking his apprenticeship at leading Keighley engineers Dean Smith and Grace, and the company – then based at North Street in Sutton – became known as Allan Green and Son.

Ralph married Maureen, and the company went from strength to strength, manufacturing gears for woodworking, textiles, shipping and other industries.

After Ralph died in 2010, Maureen continued as manager, selling the business two years later as a going concern to Acetarc Welding in Dalton Lane, Keighley.

Maureen said: “I found a lot of old photos that had fallen behind the pipes in the garage. I didn’t realise one of them was Edgar. I hired a skip that was outside the factory, so I put the photographs in there.”

Sgt Green was awarded the DCM for gallantry in the field at Turco Farm in Belgium in 1918, when he and two comrades rescued three comrades, whose dugout to be knocked in with a shell.

Exposed to the nearby German trenches, they had to rip the top of the dugout away to get at the men, while the shelling continued around them.

Sgt Green suffered a slight injury in July 1916, and was in hospital again in August 1917 after being caught in a poison gas attack. He was killed on April 16 1918 by a shell during the Battle of the Lys. He was 27.

Aaron’s parents Nigel and Shelley Hudson went with son Aaron, a pupil of Ingrow Primary School, to meet Men of Worth volunteers at their stall at the recent National Heritage Day event in Keighley Library.

Mr Wade said: “I told Aaron what a hero Sergeant Green was and what he did to earn his DCM by digging out several of his comrades who had been buried by a shell explosion in full view of the German lines and whilst the bombardment was still going on.”