I hated history at school. It seemed to be nearly all battles, maps with arrows showing troop movements and then failed treaties.

To a 1960s teenager, history only went to prove that Bob Dylan was right to cry ‘how many deaths will it take till he knows, that too many people have died?’

Strange then, 50 years or so on, that I should be planning a display for Shipley’s elegantly refurbished library to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

To be honest military history still doesn’t interest me that much. I don’t get excited about tactics or weapons and the finer points of uniform insignia pass me by.

But when I started to work my way through the pages of the Shipley Times & Express from 1914-18, I was quickly hooked by the stories of people who might have been my neighbours and friends if I had…