A FIRST World War soldier remembered on Ilkley War Memorial died in Canada during the deadly postwar Spanish Influenza outbreak, says a researcher.

Alexandra Crescent resident, Edward Wild, has been researching the lives of Ilkley servicemen killed in the Great War.

But a lack of information on one of the men whose name appears on the war memorial led Mr Wild in a search for information, which pointed all the way to British Columbia.

One of the names on Ilkley War Memorial is Lieutenant Leslie P Sutcliffe of the Royal Engineers.

"Unusually, there is no record of his death in action nor where he is buried," said Mr Wild.

After considerable research, Mr Wild established that that his full name was Leslie Peveril Sutcliffe, who was born in Halifax. His parents had moved to Ilkley and lived in a house called Linndale, on Wells Road.

Lt Sutcliffe appears to have served during the Gallipoli Campaign, Turkey, which began almost exactly 100 years ago.

During the fighting he was badly wounded and evacuated to the Island of Mudhos. He subsequently contracted dysentery and rhuematic fever and was invalided out of the army in 1917.

In June 1918 he travelled across the Atlantic to New York and from there went across the border into Canada.

By the end of October 1918 he was in a small town called Smithers, which is high up in the mountains of British Columbia, said Mr Wild.

Weak from the effects of war wounds and illness he succumbed to Spanish Influenza. At the time of his death he was apparently quite alone and was buried in the towns cemetery at 4pm on the 8th of November 1918.

Leslie's grave is still there and at some stage his family must have had a headstone made.

Mr Wild added: "Curious as what state the grave might be in I contacted the the Royal Canadian Legion, the equivalent of our British Legion and asked if they could lay a wreath at his grave. They agreed and during there remembrance service on the 10th November last year placed a wreath of poppies on his grave."

The gravestone is now broken, although Mr Wild hopes the RCL may be able to help restore it. He is interested to find out if any of Lt Sutcliffe's family still live in the Ilkley area.