ON August 4, 2014 - the 100th anniversary of Britain entering the First World War - the Telegraph & Argus, in conjunction with Bradford Council,

launched an appeal to raise funds for a memorial to the Bradford Pals and members of other local battalions who lost their lives on the bloody battlefields of the Somme.

The aim of the Honour the Pals appeal was to create a fitting memorial for the soldiers from the Bradford district who fought and died on the Somme.

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The T&A and the council joined forces with the Bradford World War One Group, with the intention of unveiling a memorial in France as a lasting reminder of the many young Bradfordians who lost their lives. These included not just the Pals but men who fought with other battalions and regiments, notably the Territorials and the 10th Battalion West Yorks.

Now a memorial has been created, thanks to the generous donations of local people, organisations and businesses which reached a total of £5,485, with match funding from Bradford Council.

It will be unveiled in France by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Geoff Reid, on Saturday, November 19 - the 100th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Somme.

The Honour the Pals appeal followed calls by local people and history groups for a fitting tribute. The district has a proud history of honouring its war dead, but while there is a memorial to the Pals in Bradford city centre, many other towns and cities in the north which also had Pals regiments have placed memorials to their fallen at Somme battlefields.

Former Bradford Council leader, Councillor David Green, and T&A editor Perry Austin-Clarke decided to set up the appeal and people of the district were asked to contribute, continuing the spirit of public donation that funded many cenotaphs after the Great War.

Mr Austin-Clarke said: "We’re absolutely thrilled that, at long last, this memorial stone is being erected exactly where it should be - in France.

“We’re extremely grateful to the people of Bradford who have given so generously to support the T&A’s Honour The Pals Appeal and we must say a very special ‘thank you’ to Tricia Platts and the Bradford World War One Group who have done such a superb job of realising the vision. It couldn’t have happened without them.

“The appalling loss and bloody sacrifice of the First World War must never be forgotten and there is no more fitting way to keep that message alive, 100 years later, than to create a new, solid and lasting memorial bought and paid for by the descendants who are here today because their ancestors died in our name.

"We hope it will be a fitting tribute that many generations to come will use to help teach about the futility of war, but also the sheer courage of those who were willing to die to help safeguard the future for those they left behind."

The wording inscribed on the new memorial is identical to the existing Pals memorial at the cenotaph in Bradford. It reads: “To the memory of the soldiers of the Bradford Pals and the other servicemen of West Yorkshire who served in the Great War 1914-1918. And Lo a mighty army came out of the North.”

The 1.5ton piece of local stone, donated by Fagley Quarries, will stand in the grounds of the French memorial chapel on the Serre Road between Serre and Hebuterne in northern France, where many Bradford men fought and died on the frontline. Letter cutter Dave Phillips, working on behalf of stonemasons Wright and Sons of Cemetery Works, Bradford, said he was honoured to have worked on such a "special job".

The new memorial will stand amid other sites where visitors pay respects to the fallen, including British and French military cemeteries and the Sheffield Memorial Park, containing memorials to other Pals battalions.

The unveiling ceremony will be attended by a dozen local mayors, a Deputy to the French parliament and representatives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

"This guest list not only reflects the significance which the French attach to our men being there in World War One, helping liberate their nation, but also the links we have forged between Bradford and Hébuterne over the years through our shared remembrance of French and British troops who died there," said Tricia Platts, president of the Bradford World War One group.

“It is hugely important to have this memorial, for visitors making trips, especially to the Somme. More and more school groups are going there, but there is nowhere for Bradford school groups to focus their pupils’ attention. Schoolchildren can visit this memorial in years to come, and reflect, looking across to the fields where the Pals' trenches were and from which they attacked.

“The response from the public to the memorial appeal has been superb - from small individual donations to much larger donations from groups and societies across the city, such as the Civic Society."

Money raised from has funded the construction, inscription and transport of the memorial. Any cash left over will fund maintenance.

Bradford Council leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said: “It has been a privilege to support such a worthwhile appeal. Hundreds of Bradfordians donated money and we felt that the council should match that money. It will be a fitting memorial to the Pals and other serviceman from our district who fought and gave their lives in the First World War.”

Covering the memorial will be a Union Jack which flew over the old Bradford Mechanics Institute 100 years ago, when it was used as a First World War recruiting office.

While in France, the Bradford World War One Group, accompanied by the Lord Mayor, will visit cemeteries and villages associated with the Bradford Pals, including St Vaast Military Cemetery, Merville Communal Cemetery and Hebuterne, where the WW1 Group placed a plaque dedicated to the Pals in 2002. The Pals fought there in February, 1917, and 43 of them are buried in a cemetery near the village.

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