THIS group of Keighley Home Guard officers gives the lie to the comic buffoonery of the television series Dad’s Army.

Eight of the 13 are wearing their Great War medals.

In the middle of the front row sits Major John Edwin Tillotson DSO MC, who was appointed company commander on the formation of the Keighley Home Guard in 1940.

As a 19-year-old second-lieutenant in 1918, he had been one of the youngest winners of the Distinguished Service Order. In civilian life, he was chief salesman for brewers Timothy Taylor and Co and a notable breeder of budgerigars.

Seated second from the left, Lieutenant Horace S Reynolds had served as a sergeant in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment in the Great War.

He had started work aged 14 with the Keighley Corporation gas department, becoming gas distribution foreman in 1940.

He would be awarded the British Empire Medal in 1955.

Third from the left sits Alderman Ernest Whalley, a long-serving member of Keighley Town Council, who had been mayor in 1933-34. He was a branch manager for the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society.

lDo you have any old pictures of Keighley district we could publish? If so, please e-mail them to richard.parker@nqyne.co.uk or write to the Content Editor, Keighley News, 80-86 North Street, Keighley BD21 3AG. Please include your full name, address and daytime telephone number.