KEIGHLEY man George Frederick Woollard served in both the army and air force during the First World War.
He survived several years in the trenches only to die in an air accident only months before end of the war. Another aeroplane “rolled down” on top of the aircraft he was flying, sending him down to the ground with no chance of saving himself.
George was born in 1896 in Keighley, and attended Keighley Boys Grammar School where he excelled in the textiles department. By 1914 he was working in the worsted trade with the Bradford Dyers’ Association, but when war broke out he immediately signed up with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.
He went to France in April 1915, fighting in the trenches and becoming second-lieutenant within two years. In 1917 a gallantry certificate granted him eight days’ special leave, then he returned home as with trench foot due to water-logged trenches on the Passchendaele Ridge.
After recovering he was marked as fit for home service, but he instead volunteered for service in the fledgling Royal Air Force. A competent pilot, his death was a result of a “most unfortunate accident”.
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