Worthwhile tales of the Worth men

The Men of Worth Project teamed up with the Keighley News to showcase soldiers, sailors and airmen from the town who served during the First World War.

Since 2014 our weekly column has chronicled the stories of 260 people who were born, lived or worked in the area.

After the Keighley News was approached by Andy Wade – founder of the Men of Worth Project – the intention was to carry the columns for a year.

But there were so many men, most of whom died before the end of the war in 1918, that the series has continued right until the centenary of the war’s end.

Men of Worth founder Andy Wade carried out extensive research into each man through military, church and education records, census details, newspaper cuttings and other archives.

The research unearthed fascinating stories of how some of the men lived and died. But in many cases the research bore witness to a banal truth of the First World War: that most young men, full of hope for their lives to come, arrived on the front lines and soon afterwards were killed.

The Men of Worth told the story of Lawrence Wood, believed to be first Keighley man to be killed in the war. Lawrence never met his newly born baby who was just two weeks old when Lawrence was killed in action in August 23, 1914.

There was Oakworth man Clifford Baxandall, who was killed in the Battle of Arras in 1917, and John Bowker, of Cross Roads, who survived four years of fighting and lived until he was 75.

Charles Lowndes and Joseph William Tatton, boyhood friends from Parkwood, died together in the same trench mortar explosion at the end of Battle of the Somme.

Sutton man Rhodes Spence wrote a cheery letter home to his parents in 1915 then was killed after a shell exploded above his trench.

From Morton and Riddlesden came Hartley Falkingham, who won medals for brave acts such as assaulting enemy machine-gun nests alone, and survived the war.

The Men of Worth Project volunteers will continue to research the war experiences of Keighley people.