Before this centenary year is over we will have been told more than one story of Bradford brothers in war. The first of these stories was sent by Mrs Beryl E Erdeyli, of Little Horton.

Her grandfather Tom Dent and his brother Harry both lived at 19 Princeville Street, just off Ingleby Road, Bradford. They had five sisters. Their father Thomas died at the age of 65, their mother, Emma, lived to be 91.

Mrs Erdeyli wrote: “My grandad Tom Dent joined the Royal Field Artillery and was responsible for the big guns. He rode a horse named Nobby, riding alongside the gun carriage up to the Front.

“He told me that his horse was shot, and then the horse meat was eaten by the soldiers. This upset him very much as it was a friend as well as his horse.

“My grandad was mustard-gassed and sent back to England to recover. As soon as he was well he was sent back to the Front. He was demobbed in 1919 and on returning home he had all his clothes burned as he was covered in lice.

“During the 1920s he and my nan were the landlords of the Star Inn, Westgate.

“His brother Harry was not so lucky. He was blown up at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 at the age of 20 – we hear so much about France but not much about the sea battles.

“He was on the Invincible, which was battered by repeated salvoes, blown up and sank, killing 1,026 officers and men. Admiral Hood was the commander and later the battleship The Hood was named after him. That ship was blown out of the water by a direct hit from the German battleship Bismarck in World War Two.

“One of my grandad’s sisters was left a war widow after her husband was killed in Mesopotamia. He was one of an entire family of sons who fought in the First World War.

“My grandad’s family were very close and all lived in Princeville, a few streets apart. Although they all suffered hardship they supported each other through these times and beyond.”

Harry Dent was a member of the Royal Marine Light Infantry. He was killed on the very first day of the Battle of Jutland, on May 31, 1916, which took place over two days in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark.

The German High Seas Fleet was trying to break the British shipping blockade of Northern Europe. In the month before Jutland, the German Navy had shelled the British coastal towns of Lowestoft and Yarmouth in an attempt to lure the Royal Navy into a trap.

Historians tend to view the battle as a stalemate between the fleets of Admiral Sir John Rushworth Jellicoe and Admiral Sir David Beatty and their German adversary Admiral Reinhardt von Scheer.

The June issue of The War Illustrated for 1916 acknowledged that the outcome was not decisive, but nevertheless declared it a victory for the British, for this reason: “The German Navy, having put to sea in force, was compelled to return to its harbours within 12 hours after encountering our squadrons.”

The Learning History Site states: “The Germans claimed that Jutland was a victory for them as they had sunk more capital ships than the British. Jellicoe claimed that the victory belonged to the British as his fleet was still a seaworthy entity, whereas the German High Seas fleet was not.

“The British did lose more ships – 14 ships and more than 6,000 lives – than the Germans (nine ships and more than 2,500 casualties). But the German fleet was never again to be in a position to put to sea and challenge the British Navy in the North Sea.”

The Invincible, was reportedly sunk just after 6.30pm on May 31, 1916.