THE TRAUMA of the trenches accompanied Keighley soldier Ronald Leach home after the First World War.

The memories of fighting in France tormented the young man as he tried to adapt to civilian life. .

The Men of Worth Project have revealed Ronald’s post-war experiences after uncovering reminiscences of Ronald’s sister Eva Leach, later Churchman, in a 1989 Penguin paperback written by renowned First World War historian Lyn MacDonald.

MacDonald devoted several pages to Eva’s 1970s memories in her book 1914: The Days of Hope, but it is Ronald’s post-war experiences that provide the most poignant passages.

Ronald was in the army for five years, starting his active service by mucking-out horses during a long voyage to Egypt. Later posted to France, Ronald and his comrades endured malaria and pneumonia.

Eva said she and her family went to meet Ronald at Keighley station after he was demobbed in 1919.

She said: “He had altered so much that none of us recognised him. Could this grizzled old man be our brother?

“But our old dog knew him and went wild with delight, jumping at him, licking his face and entwining himself round Ronald’s knees.

“Ronald was very withdrawn at times and at other times had severe fits of bad temper. He once hit me in the mouth for laughing. He was so remorseful. I think he cried.

“He often gazed into space for quite some time. My mother was terribly worried. He refused to go back to the Railway Offices where he had worked.

“My dad, a motor engineer named Vincent Ferrand and the landlord of the Bridge Inn, Stockbridge, with the help of Ronald’s gratuity payment, started a garage at Stockbridge.

“Ronald became much more settled then. He went to Belgium and had a civil marriage to Yvonne, a girl whose family he had been billeted with after the Armistice?

“He had told my parents of his feelings. My mother, knowing what a bad war he had had and wanting him to have a normal life, had worked on Dad to allow them to live with us.”