Mr Derek Longbottom, now of Embsay, has supplied this group of Keighley Home Guard dispatch-riders photographed at Lawkholme towards the end of 1940.

He is standing fourth from the left -- his motorbike had broken down at the time, but the photographer simply couldn't fit in the bikes of the other three standing. In charge was Sergeant Fred Bailey, third from the right, who had been a dispatch-rider during the First World War.

Mr Longbottom recalls their duties touring the district command posts.

He said: "Mine fell on a Wednesday night. I think our first port of call was an officer's house in Park Lane, Bingley, and then on to Beck Foot; Waterloo House, at Denholme; Major Pawson's, at Oxenhope, and then an unofficial stop for supper at Mrs Ratcliffe's, in Haworth. We also called at Colonel Bateman's, at Sutton, who always gave us a few cigarettes" On one occasion Mr Longbottom and his mate Jim Whitehead went drinking with their petrol expenses and had to sleep off the effects in the Drill Hall

He remained in a reserved occupation, manufacturing components for the war effort, but some of the others were called up as the war went on.

"I was on duty every Wednesday night through till Thursday morning right through the war," he adds, "And was glad to see an end to it."