LOOKING rather overawed by the splendour of the former Mayor's Parlour in Keighley Town Hall, these Fell Lane children were presenting Mayor JW Wardle with the £5 11s they had raised towards the Spitfire-Hurricane Fund in the late summer of 1940.
One of them was to recall how they had "put on concerts in the gardens at the back of the houses in Clifton Street, with collections for Warship Week, the Spitfire Fund etc and two adults always played major parts in these events – Mr Harry Spencer and Mrs Watson, two great characters, loved by all the neighbours."
The children, from left on the back row, are Iris Watson, Jean Hodgson, Doreen Spencer, Betty Wignall, Edna Horsman, Bernard Broster and Jack Brook, and front, Gordon Cooper, Joan Manning, Harry Mawer, Eric Watson, Kathleen Hird, Brenda Manning and Margaret Wignall.
Keighley's total contribution to the national Spitfire-Hurricane Fund amounted to £11,600, which paid for both a Spitfire and a Hurricane while still leaving something over for the RAF Benevolent Fund. Messrs Dean, Smith and Grace Ltd financed their own Spitfire.
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