The Keighley Industrial Cooperative Society Limited, war memorial/roll of honour board.
Imperial War Museum:
This memorial is recorded as ‘lost’ by the Imperial War Museum.
Their details are:
KEIGHLEY CO OPERATIVE SOCIETY (LOST.) UKNIWM Ref: 28945.
Original Address:
CO OPERATIVE SOCIETY, BRUNSWICK ST, KEIGHLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND.
Type: BOARD/PLAQUE/TABLET
Other Location Details: IN THE VESTIBULE OF THE BOOT AND SHOE DEPT
OS Map Ref: SE 062 412
Inscription
(UNKNOWN)
Components
Component Material(s) Height Width Depth Condition
BACKBOARD WOOD UNKNOWN
PLAQUE – FIRST WORLD WAR BRASS LOST
Physical Description:
CAST BRASS PLAQUE MOUNTED ONTO AN OAK BACKBOARD. WHOLE BORDERED BY RAISED LAUREL LEAVES.
ENAMMELED BOROUGH COAT OF ARMS AT THE TOP.
FIRST WORLD WAR
Total names on memorial: 0
Served & Returned 81
Died 14
Is this an exact count? Not known
How are the names ordered? Not known
What information is listed on the memorial? None
Is a list of names on the memorial held by the UKNIWM? No
Maintenance history:
C 1975: PREMISES DEMOLISHED AND SOCIETY ABSORBED INTO YORKSHIRE CO-OPERATIVES LTD. FATE OF MEMORIAL UNKNOWN
Ceremonies:
Date: 21ST JANUARY 1922
Role Performed By
UNVEILING LOCAL CLERGY/DIGNITARIES
Co-ordinator’s Comments:
Comments: REF: KEIGHLEY NEWS, 21-JAN-1922
Keighley News Saturday 21st January 1922, page 8:
MEMORIAL TO CO-OPERATIVE EMPLOYEES.
The Keighley Co-operative Society’s memorial to the eighty-one employees who served in the late war and the fourteen men who died on service is to be unveiled to-day. It takes the form of a handsome cast brass plaque mounted on oak, the names of the men being set out in raised lettering, and the whole bordered in raised laurel leaves. The borough coat of arms executed in raised brass and enamel colours, completes the simple but effective design. The unveiling ceremony this evening is to be performed by the president of the society (Mr. F. Midgley), and the Mayor (Mr. James Longton) will preside.
Keighley News Saturday 28th January 1922, page 8:
CO-OPERATORS’ TRIBUTE TO EMPLOYEES.
A KEIGHLEY CEREMONY.
MAYOR ON THE LESSONS OF THE WAR
A handsome cast-brass plaque, mounted on oak, in memory of the fourteen employees of the Keighley Co-operative Society who fell in the war and as a tribute to the eighty-one employees who joined the colours, was unveiled on Saturday night in the presence of a large assembly by Mr. Frank Midgley (president of the society). The memorial is placed in the vestibule of the boot and shoe department in Brunswick Street. The names of the men are set out in embossed lettering, and the whole is bordered “in embossed laurel leaves, while the borough coat of arms is executed in raised brass and enamel colours. The service, held in the assembly rooms, was very impressive, and the hymns “Let saints on earth in concert sing” and “Fight the good fight were sung, and short addresses given by the Mayor, who occupied the chair, and the Rector (the Rev. E. T. G. Hunter), who delivered prayer. The company then proceeded to the vestibule of the boot and shoe department, where the memorial was unveiled, and this was followed by the sounding of the Last Post, the service concluding with the singing of the hymn The Son of God goes forth to war.” led by the Salvation Army Band.
PLEA FOR LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
The Mayor observed that altogether ninety five men employed by the Co-operative Society joined the colours, and of that number, they were glad to say, eighty-one had returned. But there were fourteen who sacrificed their lives for their country. For these they wept, and they could never forget their memories. There was no doubt that if our enemy had once succeeded in seizing France’s Channel ports he would have been across in England in a very short time; but the devotion of these men saved us from that, and we still had our liberties. What trials and dangers the men went through we could have no conception of and one of the facts that was patent to anyone who followed the war was that where our Allies wanted stiffening, and where they wanted help, it was the Britisher who was sent out to pull him out of his difficulties. Our men fought with the bravery of their race. We had a long history, and our men were faithful to the traditions of the British race. He had sometimes wondered whether the war was necessary. It never was necessary, he proceeded, but it was forced upon us by other nations, armed to the teeth, and it seemed to him that we had a great lesson to learn from the war and its losses. The lesson was that we should have strong international law to put a stop to any State that desired the territory or the treasure of another nation.
PUNISHING TRANSGRESSORS.
He was hoping that the lesson of the war would be that we should all make up our minds that so far as we were concerned we would do everything to help the League of Nations, or any other organisation which would stop such bloodshed as we had witnessed during the war. He felt that the international law should be just as strong as the laws were in this country. We punished transgressors, and in his opinion the nations ought to punish any transgressing nation. He had faith that out of the war would ultimately come an organisation which would prevent war in the future. (Applause.) The putting of these questions between nation and nation to the arbitrament of the sword left us in a state of barbarism, and we were still savages if we could not find other means of settling disputes. There was one thing which he thought ought to be done in Keighley, and that was the provision of a memorial for the whole of the men in Keighley who fell in the war. He was glad that the co-operative society and some of the religious denominations were putting on record memories of their own servants, and their own adherents, and he was hopeful that before long we should have a memorial to the whole of those in the town who fell for our sakes.
A CALL TO ACTION.
The Rector said the reason they were present that night was to do honour to the memory of the men who gave their lives that we might live, and that we might retain our homes and have peace and liberty. They were also there to express their gratitude, and if they had any real gratitude in their hearts they must feel as though they wanted to do some act worthy of their great sacrifice. Perhaps nothing they could do would be commensurate with those who gave their lives, but the memorial ought to be a witness and a call to action. The message of Christianity was “That they live for evermore,” and if they wanted to know what kind of life they were leading, he thought they might take it for a certainty that the God of Love, who made this world, was taking care of them and providing for them. He believed that these men went to the war – however little they realised it – because they had an idea their liberty was in danger, that justice was imperilled, and that the brotherhood of the world was in danger; and they went because of the ideal of righteousness, freedom, justice, and peace. They had given their lives for that ideal; and he believed that they were looking to us to see that what they were unable to accomplish should be fulfilled by us. They would not like the tablet to be only a memorial to what they had done in the past, but a witness that they were living and that we could enter into communion with them. It was a call to us for action to see that the Kingdom of God was fulfilled. There was only one thing that could end wars, and that was when love was spread throughout the world.
THE UNVEILING CEREMONY. In performing the unveiling ceremony, the President said he was glad to think that in the hour of the country’s need they had in their service men who heard the clarion call and so willingly responded. He was deeply sorry they did not all return, and it was only right and fitting that the society should pay its tribute to those gallant men who had so nobly given their all. The wounds that had been made in their hearts were gradually healing, and though they could not forget, time was constantly healing, softening, and deadening the pain. Might those who had lost, by simple faith find comfort and strength in the fact that they had laid down their lives for their friends, and no man could do more, added Mr. Midgley. In conclusion he expressed the hope that in future, instead of strife, jealousy, and hatred between nations, they would have the true co-operative spirit of unity, progress and liberty, with the grand old motto of ‘All for each and each for all.’
Information sources:
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
BK424 – Herbert A. France archive at Keighley Library.
Imperial War Museum Ref: 28945.
Photos by Andy Wade.
