For the past few years, Keighley Town Council has commissioned me to cover my home town’s Remembrance Day ceremonies.
I’m always impressed how the people of Keighley turn out to remember the thousands of men and women who fought would-be oppressors so we could enjoy the freedoms we might take for granted and which, even now, are under threat.
My father, a Derbyshire man, was never one for dwelling on his military past, though he did come alive when recounting tales of his time in north Africa, with his Royal Engineers comrade from Keighley and his lady pen pal from the town whom he would go on to marry.
He was captured by the Germans as the Allies moved north up Italy and spent the last year of the war in a prisoner of war camp near Munich.
I have a great deal of admiration for my mother and father’s generation; the men overseas fighting Nazis and the women coping with a country under military attack, never knowing when the next bombs would fall from the sky.
And of course, millions of people across the world still face those same terrors.
Keighley’s diverse population takes to the streets on this day to remember those who died in wars and conflicts. The streets are crowded with young and old, and representatives of all the communities who constitute this town’s people.
I feel honoured to be asked to record this important gathering.
