THIS was a proud moment for members of the Keighley Girls’ Training Corps during Wings for Victory Week in 1943.
They provided a guard of honour for Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, who came to mark a fundraising indicator in the Town Hall Square.
The Princess Royal stands on the right, in the uniform of Commandant-in-Chief of the British Detachments of the Red Cross.
She would ceremonially raise the indicator to £897,520 – this only half-way through a week that had set itself a target of £750,000 – ‘the cost of ten Lancaster and 75 Spitfires’. By the end of Wings for Victory Week, Keighley had raised £1,453,147.
The Keighley company of the Girls’ Training Corps had been formed in 1942, with the ideal of “preparing the girls for the duties of Christian citizenship”, especially relevant in view of their future liability for conscription into war work or the armed forces.
The photograph has been supplied by Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane in Keighley.
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