The memorial board from the old Aireborough Grammar School is to be rededicated at Guiseley School for Remembrance Day to remember the sacrifice made by former school students from Guiseley and the surrounding area during the First World War.
After the closure of Aireborough Grammar School in the early 1990’s, the memorial board was rumoured to have been moved to Yeadon Town Hall, but had since been removed and seemed to have been lost until it was found in a cupboard at Guiseley Theatre and brought to the school to be restored and put on display.
The lives of the young men on the board have been researched using military and census records by Year 9 history students Max Adams and Megan Hern, who have created an information board to be displayed alongside the memorial board. “Yeadon and Guiseley High School, as it was known at the time, was opened in 1910 and the census records show that the soldiers remembered on the board were the same age as our Year 10 and 11 students when the war broke out, and were just 18 or 19 years old when they died. It is obvious from the births, census and service records that most of these young men lied about their age to join up at the start of the war, with some of them being just 15 or 16 years old when they signed the forms to join the army.” said Jonathan Gracey, Head of History. “It is so important for us to remember these young men who were no older than some of our Sixth Form students when they gave their lives in the First World War and for students at the school to reflect on this.”
The board will be rededicated on Remembrance Day with a minutes silence and commemoration ceremony and will be left on permanent display in the school hall. If any family of the young men remembered on the board still live in the area and have any further information, then the school would love to hear from them.
Commemorated on the board are:
- Charles Gibson Cragg: Died 21st March 1918, aged 19.
- Horace Hesketh Driver: Died 27th November 1917, aged 18.
- Eric Burton Haigh: Died 14 June 1917, Age 20.
- Edward Hartley: Died on 13 April 1918 Age 19.
- James Henry Bertram Tristram: Died 09 October 1917, aged 19.
- Norman Nicholson: Died 04 October 1917: Aged 18 years old.
- Harold Nicholson: Died 11 April 1917, Aged 19.
- Nathanial Briggs Wormald: Died 01 August 1918, Aged 19.
- Frank Crombie Steedman: Died 15 June 1917, aged 20.
- Arthur Renton Senior: Died 18 July 1918, aged 18 years old.
