ONE of the busiest mayors Keighley ever had was William Anderton Brigg, who served a four-year term from 1912 to 1916.

The Great War loaded extra demands on to civic leaders. Mr Brigg was involved with relief funds for Belgium, France, Russia, Poland, Armenia and Serbia. There was fundraising for hospitals, the Allies, soldiers and sailors, prisoners of war, the Red Cross and ambulances, with major concerns about recruitment and conscription, war savings, munitions, working women and the possibility of air raids.

Yet Mr Brigg also maintained a voluminous correspondence on behalf of individual townspeople, requesting leave for local servicemen, tracking down Keighley prisoners of war, even dipping into his own pocket for work on a soldier’s teeth!

When two brothers wrote asking his advice on enlisting, he recommended they join different units, “for,” as he diplomatically pointed out, “if anything serious happened, there might be two of you involved instead of one”.

As Mr Brigg was a bachelor his sister, Mrs Sharpe of Darley Dale, undertook the role of mayoress. She is seen with him here at the Morton Banks War Memorial.