MYSTERY surrounds the reason Keighley soldier George Henry Adams was sent home from the front a year before the war ended.

In his photograph he wears a ‘wound stripe’ but his service record does not include details of any injury.

And he was not issued with a Silver War Badge which in 1917 were routinely given to British soldiers honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness.

In fact, when peacetime textile fitter George appeared before an invalidity board that summer, no invalidity was found and he was deemed ineligible for a pension.

For whatever reason, by autumn 1917 George was back in the UK, where he helped the war effort by becoming an engineer’s fitter in a Lincoln factory, possibly working on the famous Sopwith Camel aeroplane.

Men of Worth Project researcher Andy Wade said: “We know George served time at the front, but his service record does not include any details of this apart from his data disembarkation in France.

“It’s possible he was just fatigued through trench life to the point where he was no longer able to be an efficient soldier and he was discharged.”