THE SON of a Keighley stationmaster won a Military Medal for his bravery at Messines Ridge. Bombardier Edwin Smith was serving with the Royal Field Artillery when he fought in the seven-day battle in France.

Parents David and Dan were proud to hear about their churchgoing son’s exploits in summer 1917, especially when he wrote to tell them the King had been pleased to award him the medal.

But another letter just four months later brought less welcome news – their 29-year-old son had been killed following another bout of fierce fighting.

Edwin was born in Carnforth, Lancashire, in 1888 and by the age of 12 was living in Bradford, where his father was a stationmaster for the Midland Railway.

Edwin himself joined the railway, working as a junior clerk at Manningham Station in the early years of the 20th century, and by 1911, the family had moved to Keighley.

Edwin was working as a merchants’ clerk while singing with the Bradford Operatic Society and helping run the Sunday School literary society at the Albert Street Baptist Church in Keighley.

He enlisted with the Army in 1915, and was a sergeant at the time of his death in 1917.