Bradford Libraries in conjunction with Bradford College are pleased to offer two new courses.
The popular course, Family History for Beginners, is starting again at Bradford Local Studies and Keighley Local Studies Libraries.
Ilkley Library are pleased to announce the start of a new course: Discovering Your Family History Using Your Tablet.
Please see the posters below for more details.
On 5th December the sculptured head of Humbert Wolfe, Bradford poet, was presented to City Library by Anthony Padgett, Sculptor. The sculpture was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Joanne Dodds, with a reading of Humbert’s poems by poet Stephen O’Connor.
Humbert’s poem ‘Requiem’, published in 1927 is often read at Remembrance events.
Requiem: The Soldier
Down some cold field in a world outspoken
the young men are walking together, slim and tall,
and though they laugh to one another, silence is not broken;
there is no sound however clear they call.
They are speaking together of what they loved in vain here,
but the air is too thin to carry the things they say.
They were young and golden, but they came on pain here,
and their youth is age now, their gold is grey.
Yet their hearts are not changed, and they cry to one another,
‘What have they done with the lives we laid aside?
Are they young with our youth, gold with our gold, my brother?
Do they smile in the face of death, because we died?’
Down some cold field in a world uncharted
the young seek each other with questioning eyes.
They question each other, the young, the golden hearted,
of the world that they were robbed of in their quiet paradise.
I do not ask God’s purpose. He gave me the sword,
and though merely to wield it is itself the lie
against the light, at the bidding of my Lord,
where all the rest bear witness, I’ll deny.
And I remember Peter’s high reward,
and say of soldiers, when I hear cocks cry,
‘As your dear lives (’twas all you might afford)
you laid aside, I lay my sainthood by.’
There are in heaven other archangels,
bright friends of God, who build where Michael destroys,
in music, or in beauty, lute players.
I wield the sword; and though I ask nought else
of God, I pray to Him: ‘But these were boys,
and died. Be gentle, God, to soldiers.’
Bradford Local Studies library has an extensive collection of books and news cuttings by this best selling poet.
On Saturday November 21st, Bradford Local Studies Library was proud to host a talk, “The Bradford Territorials” given by Tricia Platts of the Bradford World War One Group. The well attended event gave an informative insight into the Territorials, and particularly Bradford’s own Victoria Cross recipient, Samuel Meekosha.
There is a display about Samuel Meekosha in the Local Studies Library in Bradford.
At 11.00am on 11 November 1918 the First World War was over. The fighting was over but life would never be the same again. In towns and villages across the country public memorials were erected to commemorate their men and women who died in the First Word War. As our thoughts turn to Armistice day, Susanne Young, a historian from the Wharfedale Family History Society has shared her research with us about the names on the Burley in Wharfedale memorial.
The commemoration in October of one of WW1’s heroines, Nurse Edith Cavell, also highlights the pioneering work carried out in other hospitals at home and on the Front during the First World War.
One of the innovations was the use of Sphagnum moss, or Bog moss, as an effective dressing for wounds. As hundreds of thousands of dressings were required, sufficient gauze and cotton wool became difficult to obtain. An Edinburgh surgeon, Dr Cathcart, revived the use of this soft moss which can absorb up to ten times its own weight in water. Dr Cathcart established a centre for the preparation of dressings from the moss, in order to supplement medical supplies at home and on the Front. Other such centres were established.
The moss grows abundantly on wet moorland and mountains in colours: white, yellow, crimson, green and brown and, under the direction of the moorland keeper, local working parties were organised to collect it. In the BK 10, Brigg collection in Keighley Library, there is a dried sample with a note attached which says “Rombalds Moor – very good, Keighley Moor – good”, as well as the letter and note shown (BK10/683/9/2).
Keighley Library also holds the publication, Recollections of the War Hospital Keighley and its Auxiliaries 1916-1919. Keighley’s War Hospital was the former Keighley and Bingley Fever Hospital at Morton Banks and included local auxiliary hospitals: Spencer Street, Fell Lane, and Victoria. The brochure gives an excellent account of Keighley’s own contribution to medical advancement during the war, as the following extract shows from page 44:
The selection of Keighley War Hospital as a centre for American Surgeons to see the latest developments in Military Surgery proved interesting interludes in the daily routine. To some 30 American Red Cross Surgeons a series of lectures on modern methods of treating wounds, gas gangrene, gas poisoning, &c., was delivered by Major Brander, while in the wards demonstrations and clinical discourses on methods of dealing with the more interesting and obscure results of modern warfare were given by Majors Dobie and Brander.
Up to June 1919 – 13, 214 soldiers were admitted to Keighley hospitals, they included mostly medical or surgical cases but also 105 German POWs and 156 soldiers suffering from gas poisoning. The Keighley Surgical Supply Depot, employing local women, produced over 108,700 swabs and bandages.
