A HAPPY summer’s day in July 1918 saw Keighley officer John Clifford Dawson Moore and his men enjoying time off in a French village.
During a day in Athis the soldiers bathed in a pool near the village, and that evening a band played selections in the village square.
But soon it was back to war for the 5th Battalion West Riding Regiment as the soldiers set off early the next morning to prepare for an attack.
British forces took Boulouse but were unable to capture sister villages Marfaux and Chamuzy due to heavy artillery fire and the risk of machine-gun fire.
While 2nd Lieutenant Moore discussed how to handle the machine-gun nests, a shell burst in his trench. Three men were killed, and John was severely wounded, dying later in the dressing station.
Keighley-born John had been one of 24 friends connected with the Temple Street Wesleyan Chapel who had joined the local battalion of the Territorials in September in 1914, soon after war broke out.
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