Keighley Local  Studies Library has a unique and quite extensive archive of World War 1 and WW2 records. These include national and local memorabilia and archives. The Keighley War hospital records are particularly interesting and of national importance as they are a rarity. They include the Dr Scatterty collection which has a Patients’ register, archive BK39, that contains 13,214 names of servicemen who were treated at the local Morton War Hospital. The register also records the names of German prisoners of war who were being held locally and who required treatment from time to time, notably from the influenza epidemic.

The Queen’s Award winning Men of Worth Project are documenting the men and women of Keighley and the Worth Valley who served the country in wartime and volunteers have done a lot of research into Keighley Library’s unique collection. Volunteers have also been working hard to transcribe and digitise the Patient Register.

On the 11 November, we hope to combine the two archives and, with the award winning assistance of Men of Worth volunteers, we hope to be able to help local people trace the service men and women in their families from Keighley and the Worth valley area. It is a short session this year and will be broken by the two minutes’ silence in Keighley’s Town Hall square. Please join us if you can.