A FORMER cricket club captain, who was killed while fighting in France during World War One, was remembered in a special memorial service on the 100th anniversary of his death.

Members of Thornton Cricket Club, sporting cricket shirts embroidered with Private Harry H Craven’s name and a poppy motif, marked the 33-year-old’s death, on Sunday. They gathered on the cricket field, along with members of the local Royal British Legion and members of the Great War Society, and wreaths were laid.

Club president Ian Ruthven said: “One of our members had done a bit of research into our 1913 league-winning side from a team photo. That’s how it started out. “But when we found out more, particularly about Harry Craven, we thought it would be really nice as a club to get together and recognise the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country, village and cricket club.”

Having enlisted in March 1916, Pte Craven was the only one of the 1913 league-winning side killed in action on the front line. He was between Arras and Bapaume, serving with the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment as part of the 186 Brigade which was deployed to France in January 1917.

It was during the restoration of some old team photographs and some subsequent research that Pte Craven was found to be the only 1913 team member lost with the other 141 Thornton men killed in World War One.

He is buried in the Military Cemetery at Mory Abbey in France and his grave was visited in 2012 by club members who placed some soil at the foot of his headstone from the cricket pitch in Thornton.

Those at the club researching the former captain’s death also found an article in the Bradford Daily Telegraph in 1917 titled “Well-known Cricketer Killed”, which described Pte Craven as “one of the best known and most popular of the many young men who have joined the colours”.

He had been a playing member of the club for 14 years and the team wore black armbands in tribute to him at a subsequent match, it read.