AMOS Dewhirst, a wool sorter from Oxenhope, opened a newsagents, stationers and tobacconists shop in Oakworth Road, Keighley, in 1899.

But here his window is displaying cameras. This is not surprising, as he was an enthusiastic photographer who used to take views for his own brand of postcards, of which his best-sellers are said to have been a waterfall at Slippery Ford and a part of Holme House Woods known as the Dark Wood.

The headlines on the billboards suggest that he took this photograph in 1914 on the eve of the Great War.

The youth in the doorway was his eldest son James.

He was to join the Royal Naval Division in 1916 and spend the rest of the war manning a protective gun aboard merchant ships, in which capacity he made repeated trips to Rio de Janeiro and other far-flung ports.

His messages home always commented on how much better the weather was, compared with Keighley – except Russia, which was even worse!