AS a child, Tricia Platts was fascinated with a photograph on the mantlepiece of a young man in uniform.

"I was just told it was 'Uncle Percy who died in the war'. People didn't talk much back then about what had happened during the war," she says. "In later years I asked my mother about him - he was her uncle - and she said she had a vivid memory of a man in a brown suit doing funny cartwheels on the field by the house. That was Uncle Percy, while he was on leave. He died in October, 1918. My mother remembered a lot of crying at the time.

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"I discovered Percy had been a Bradford Pal, which surprised me as my family was from Lancashire. When I discovered the Bradford connection it sparked my interest in the Pals, and the war."

Percy's father died in 1896, leaving Percy's mother with 10 children. She brought the family to Bradford to find work. Percy Dixon, who lived at Arncliffe Terrace, Lidget Green, was a clerk in the wool trade before joining up, aged 24.

"At the outbreak of war, Percy became one of the first thousand young men to volunteer for the 16th Battalion and became a Bradford Pal," says Tricia. "His name appeared in the Bradford Weekly Telegraph on November 6, 1914 under the headline 'First Complete Roll Call - A Credit To The City'. Two friends enlisted at the same time: Raymond Smith of 184 St Stephen's Road, Little Horton, died on the first day of the Somme and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, and William Lassey of Waverley Avenue, Lidget Green, was killed by a sniper in May, 1916.

"Percy remained with the Pals until February, 1918 when he was transferred to the 1/8th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion. On October 20, Percy's company was involved in the crossing of the River Selle. They were involved in some skirmishes and on October 22 pushed on for 200 yards. The war diary records: 'B Company suffered heavily from shellfire and still more machine gun opposition...casualties for the day were two officers wounded, 12 OR killed, 74 wounded and 11 missing...the bulk of the casualties were from B'."

Lance Corporal Dixon's body was never found and he was posted as 'missing'. He is commemorated on the memorial at Vis-en-Artois.

At the age of 95, Tricia's mother, Dorothy, recalled her grandmother (Percy's mother) sitting in her rocking chair at the fireside, quietly singing Keep the Home Fires Burning. "When news of Percy reached her, the singing ceased," says Tricia.

Percy's brother, Rex, survived both the First and Second World Wars. In July 1914, a month after his 18th birthday, he completed evening courses in draughtsmanship, mathematics and workshop practice at Bradford Technical College. On August 4 Rex enlisted in the Royal Navy, after training he was assigned to HMS Benbow, which joined 4th Battle Squadron Grand Fleet. During the Battle of Jutland in 1916 Benbow fired 40 13.5in rounds but wasn't damaged. Being a self-confessed "nosey young man", Rex went up on deck during the barrage to see what was going on. A shell exploded in his face and he only saved his sight by covering his eyes with his hands. He was burned by cordite, for which he was treated, but it left him with a permanently red nose. Rex became a Petty Officer and eventually Ship's Artificer. During the Second World War he served in the Mediterranean.

As a boy, Rex heard about Robert Baden Powell's new scouting organisation and wrote to him enquiring how he could enrol. He received a handwritten letter from Baden Powell, welcoming him to the 'Scout brotherhood'. Rex joined the scouts in 1908 at the Bradford YMCA, virtually making him a founder member. From 1910 to 1914 he was with the St Stephen's Church Troop. Rex carried his interest in scouting into the Navy and, while serving with the Grand Fleet, became secretary of the Old Scouts. He eventually met Lord Baden Powell in the Bahamas in February, 1930.

It was while attending a Remembrance event in Centenary Square in 2002 that Tricia heard about the Bradford World War One Group. "I'd seen an article about the event in the Telegraph & Argus so I went along," she says. "I got talking to a woman called Joyce Appleby, I told about my Great Uncle Percy being in the Bradford Pals and she said: 'He'd have known my dad then - he was in the Pals too'. We went to a reception in City Hall afterwards and she introduced me to members of the World War One Group. That's what started it off for me."

Tricia is now president of the group, which has more than 40 members and meets monthly. Based at Bradford Mechanics Institute, it has a programme of speakers and organises its own talks and exhibitions, as well as trips to commemorative battlefield sites. Members visited Gallipoli in 2012 and Verdun in 2013. Members also report on visits to WW1 battlefields in France and Belgium and ceremonies at Ypres and at Serre each June, and attend local ceremonies for the Bradford Regiments on July 1 and at Bradford Cenotaph and Undercliffe Cemetery on Remembrance Sunday and November 11.

The group is planning First World War commemorative projects through to the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1919.

Much of their work involves research into individual soldiers from Bradford. People get in touch with queries about ancestors who fought in the war, or to offer their own research for the group's archives.

"A lot of our members have traced their own ancestors in the war. They have a great commitment to Bradford, it's a warm, friendly group," says Tricia. "Members regularly undertake research; often on behalf of families wanting to trace the war service of an ancestor, but also concerning individual campaigns, local battalions or regiments, or any aspect of the 1914-1918 period."

The group also researches members of the Irish and Indian Army who fought in the First World War, and is keen to hear from people living in Bradford who had ancestors serving with these regiments.

One of the soldiers whose stories was unearthed by the group was Captain Walter Scales - an uncle of actress Prunella Scales. Walter, a Bradford Territorial who fought on the Somme, enlisted as a Private with 6th Btn West Yorks, began training for his commission in February, 1915 and re-joined the unit as 2nd Lieutenant in July, 1915. He was awarded the Military Cross for rescuing men buried during a gas attack in December, 1915.

On July 1, 1916 Walter Scales was in 'A' Company as the Bradford Territorials attacked from Thiepval Wood. The Battalion had been in the Assembly Trenches from early morning until late afternoon observing the disaster as it unfolded. Overhead was enemy shelling, and wounded men straggled past. At 3.30pm came the order to attack in 30 minutes; 'C' and 'D' Companies led the attack with 'B' in support and 'A' in reserve.

The official history of the 6th Battalion (Bradford Territorials) by Captain EV Tempest gives an account of the action: "Hardly a man came back un-wounded from No-man's Land and no one advanced more than a hundred yards...Thiepval Wood had become a mere congregation of bare stumps, pounded and lashed by high explosive and shrapnel...the wounded lay in hundreds waiting to be evacuated (the Appendix to the Battalion History lists Walter Scales as wounded)...brown blanket shapes; some muttering; some moaning; some singing in delirium; some quite still".

In August 1917, Walter Scales was seconded to the 49th Division as a Staff Officer and struck off the battalion strength of the Bradford Territorials.

He died, aged 33, on January 6, 1918. Burial records at Doullens Cemetery show only four men who died on that day; they are buried next to each other. "Our belief is that all four were killed in a flying accident when Major Nagle and Captain Scales were learning to fly," says Tricia.

For more about the Bradford World War One Group email Tricia Platts on bradfordww1@hotmail.co.uk or visit the website, ww1bradford.org

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