GUISELEY people turned out to pay their respects to the fallen of the First World War.

A ceremony was held at St Oswald’s Church to mark 100 years since the installation of a special lychgate, which was put in place to remember those who had lost their lives.

The event was captured by local photographer Darren Sanderson.

Father David Pickett, Rector of St Oswalds, and Chaplain of The Royal British Legion Guiseley, conducted the Centenary Remembrance of the Installation of St Oswalds Lychgate.

The distinctive gate was designed and and erected in June 1921 in honour of the fallen of Guiseley.

Fr Pickett told the assembled crowd: “The place was crowded on that day, in the aftermath of a great and terrible war a nation gathered in silence.

“This place has now become a place of honour. A place where people come and stand in silence, because it is here that words fail us. Here we remember, here we dare to hope, and here we pledge ourselves to reconciliation and peace on this centenary.”

He also read out the names of the 151 fallen of the Great War.

It is also 100 years since the The Royal British Legion was formed and local representative Elsie Turner placed a special RBL 100 years wreath on the Lychgate on behalf of the Guiseley branch.

Jeff Gantschuk carried the Guiseley Standard. Guiseley brass band played the

Last Post and the hymn Let Saints on Earth in Concert Sing - the same hymn which was played 100 years ago at the dedication.

A century ago around 300 people crowded around the Lychgate and the streets around the town for the first ceremony there. And local people turned out again for the commemoration and to remember the fallen .

A lychgate is a a roofed gateway to a churchyard. Many date back hundreds of years.They were originally used at burials for sheltering bodies until the clergyman’s arrival. After the First World War a number of lychgates were built around the country as memorials to the fallen.

On the day war was declared in 1914 the Wharfedale Observer carried a story about the Guiseley Company of Territorials who were setting off to do their duty by joining their regiment in Skipton.

Captain Chaffer and Lieutenant Law departed from Guiseley station with 62 men. Crowds assembled from the Drill Hall on Victoria Road to the station to cheer them on their way.

Along with a photograph of the men waiting on Guiseley Station platform the newspaper said: “Long before the hour of the march to the railway station crowds began to gather in Victoria Road, at the tram terminus and along Station Road, and by nine o’clock these thoroughfares were packed by a seething mass of the inhabitants, anxious and desirous of giving the Territorials an enthusiastic send-off.”

Some of the Guiseley men who lost their lives in the Great War are remembered in a book published in 1918 by former soldier Stephen Barber.

Guiseley Terriers - a Small part in the Great War told the story of the 1/6th Duke of Wellingtons (West Riding) Regiment, whose members started the war as Territorials but went on to become battle hardened troops.

Among those who lost their lives was Lance Corporal George Maude, who won the Military Medal for bravery, and who died just ten days before the Armistice. Mr Barber paid tribute to him by laying a wreath on his grave at Saultain Communal Cemetery, near Valenciennes in France.

Another Guiseley man who died in action was Serjeant John Bulmer Jackson who was killed on July 24 in 1918. He had already left the Territorials before the outbreak of war but re-joined and volunteered to serve overseas. He is buried in Marfaux British Cemetery alongside 790 of his comrades. Marfaux marked the furthest point of the German advance in July 1918.

John was a prominent member of the St Oswald’s bell ringers and after he died a half-muffled peal was rung in his memory.