Albert Street Baptist Church War Memorial
This war memorial board was unveiled in the church on Sunday, 2nd October 1921 and a report of the event appeared in the Keighley News on Saturday 8th October.
The frame is made of oak and the central panel is beaten copper with letters in relief. There are fourteen names of men from the church who died in the Great War. There is a laurel wreath in the centre of the top panel.
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The inscription reads:
THEY BEING DEAD YET SPEAK IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF
GEORGE CLIFFORD COLE
GEORGE FREDERICK DAY
HAROLD FIRTH
WILLIAM HORSMAN
WILL LAYCOCK
WILLIE MERRALL
FRANK OVEREND
MERVYN GODFREY PAGET
CHARLIE PAGE
HANDEL PARKER
ARTHUR B. SMITH
ERNEST SMITH
EDWIN SMITH
ALBERT SPENCER
“WHO PASSED OUT OF THE SIGHT OF MEN BY THE PATH OF DUTY AND SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 – 1919″
LET THOSE WHO COME AFTER SEE THAT THEIR NAME AND PURPOSE BE NOT FORGOTTEN”
Keighley News 8th October 1921:
A KEIGHLEY CHURCH’S TRIBUTE
TABLET TO BAPTIST YOUNG MEN.
A mural tablet to the memory of the fourteen men connected with the Albert Street Baptist Church, Keighley, who fell during the war, was unveiled at the evening service on Sunday, by Major W. N. Town. The memorial is of exquisite design, in bronze, and is surrounded by a beautifully carved oaken frame. A simple wreath of laurel is the only decoration, and it is in the centre of the inscription, “They being dead, yet speak; in grateful memory of:-” then follow the names of George Clifford Cole, George Frederick Day, Harold Firth, William Horsman, Will Laycock, Willie Merrall, Frank Overend, Mervyn Godfrey Paget. Charlie Page, Handel Parker. Arthur B. Smith, Ernest Smith, Edwin Smith, and Albert Spencer and the inscription “Who passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice in, the Great War, 1914-1918. Let those who come after see that their name and purpose be not forgotten.”
UNVEILING BY MAJOR TOWN.
The service was conducted by the Rev. A, J. Westlake (pastor), and appropriate hymns were sung, and the choir tastefully rendered the introit “Lord, for Thy tender mercies sake,” and the anthem “Crossing the Bar.” Following the unveiling of the memorial there was a brief period of silence, and later the Last Post and the Reveille were sounded.
Major Town said it was a memorial of love and devotion. These men went in and out among them, and they knew them and watched their lives. They saw the enthusiasm, hopefulness, and fresh outlook upon life that youth possessed, and they thanked God for the service they rendered, and looked in the days to come for a wider influence and a larger service. England was saved from countless perils, and her sons and daughters were grateful to those who gave their all for her. They were proud of those they were commemorating. They were heroes who went through hardships and perils, such as Dante might describe in his Inferno, bearing wounds, discomfort, strain, weariness and fear, and yet through it all cheerful, and seeking to reassure those at home, and making light of whatever they came across. Yet beneath it all there was a sense of duty, a rare devotion and forgetfulness of self.
A GREAT TRAGEDY.
It was a great tragedy for the nation and Church that so many of the young had been taken – those whom they thought could least be spared – and their real memorial must be in those who survived. A heavy responsibility was thus thrown upon them to finish the work they started, and they must carry out their high ideals, righteous thought, generous impulses, and manly actions. They had been spared for some purpose of God, and it was for them to seek and carry out this purpose. And surely was not one of their first tasks to do all they could to ensure there was no repetition of the terrible times of the recent war? There was a call for them to become better men and women. They had been tried in the furnace, and some of their dross had been melted away. We might ask as we looked about the world, “Was the sacrifice made in vain?” It could not be, he answered. No noble ideal lived out in righteous faith, and died for could be in vain. The results might not come just where we looked for them, but whether the results came here and now depended very largely on ourselves, he added.
The church was closed (possibly around 1981).
The church’s records covering from 1791 to 1981 are held at Keighley Local Studies Library, archive box BK16/1
This memorial is currently in the care of Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley.
Information sources:
Cliffe Castle Museum archives, Keighley.
Keighley Local Studies and archives.
Photos and newspaper transcription by Andy Wade.
