THE date was 1914 and Earby was a small agricultural/cotton town, with 6,000 inhabitants.

The new Liberal Club included the grand Coronation Hall which, along with the Albion Hall, catered for balls, soirees, concerts and musical productions.

Much of the social life centred round the churches and work around cotton manufacturing, while the station on the Midland railway was pivotal to most activities.

The town had 111 shops , four doctors, three banks and four building societies.

Then came war and how the good folk of Earby lived — and died — both on the war front and the home front has been set out in a new book, Earby in the First World War.

Immediately, the British regular Army and the Territorials were mobilised and the British Fleet put on a war footing.

Fourteen men of the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve left Earby on the 2.42 train on Monday, August 3, for Portsmouth. The following day, an order was issued from Skipton drill hall mobilising the Territorial Forces.

The Earby contingent of the West Yorkshire Territorial Regiment eagerly responded and left on the last train just after 10pm, ‘amid scenes of unparalleled excitement and enthusiasm’ and they were followed the following day by members of the National Reserve.

Huge crowds gathered at Earby Station to bid them farewell, with hundreds of people leaving their looms to see the men off.

A distress committee was formed to help those families whose menfolk had answered the call to arms and there was a house to house collection of food and clothing, later distributed among the most needy cases.

The local education committee also quickly put into operation the Provision of Meals for Schoolchildren Act, which served 110 youngsters with appetising breakfasts and dinners in the Coronation Hall.

The men folk of Earby were encouraged to do their duty and join the regular army and at the beginning of December, 1914, a recruitment meeting was held again in the Coronation Hall, where patriotic songs were sung. Out of Earby’s small population, 247 names were already on the roll of honour and the men were urged to beat Barnoldswick.

One early scheme in the recruitment drive was the formation of Pals battalions, where groups of men from the same mill, team or street joined up and fought together, Seven men who constituted Earby’s contribution to the Pals Company were W Gaunt, E Shuttleworth, Reg Watson, Jas Pilkington, Allan Wharton. John Pratt and Booth Hartley.

In January 1915, when home on leave, some of the Pals were entertained to supper at the Conservative Club, followed by vocal and instrumental music and speeches.

Patriotic fervour was the order of the evening, which was brought to a close at 3.30am by the singing of Auld Lang Syne and a toast to the Pals’ good health.

As the war progressed young Earby men wrote home to their anxious parents and wives, men such as Private Walter Spender, of the Durham Light Infantry, whose parents lived in Albion Street.

In his letter from the front, he wrote: “We have now been in the firing line for four nights and days without a wash or shave and although we are dirty, we are in the best of spirits and much happier than you would imagine.

“We had rather a rough time of it last Sunday when one regiment in our brigade suffered heavily through German treachery.

“A large party of them came in with the white flag and when our men went out to take them prisoners they turned their machine guns on them!

“Another party of Germans came in to surrender last night, but they did not get the chance to use their treachery this time. Our fellows let into them and they fled, leaving 200 wounded behind.”

The year 1917 was a year of much fundraising by the work people in the various mills of Earby for the dozens and dozens of workers on active service. There were pie and pea suppers, socials, recitals and dances, led by Laycock’s Quadrille and Longworth bands.

The year ended with a performance by Earby Amateurs in aid of the Stranded Soldiers Fund and arrangements were made to send Christmas parcels to all local men serving abroad.

The end of the war was met with subdued but genuine public rejoicing. Mill buzzers sounded the news and flags and bunting appeared on all the streets.

However, news of deaths was still arriving and in total the town lost 171 sons. A memorial in the shape of a cross was erected at the junction of Skipton Road and Victoria Road, where hundreds of tributes were laid. On two successive Saturdays, in August 1919, Earby held its Peace Day celebrations, with parades of soldiers and sailors and brass bands.

A cenotaph and memorial park opened in 1924.

• Earby in the First World War by Stephanie Carter, published by the Earby and District Local History Society, costs £8, plus £3 post and packaging and can be ordered from Bob Abel on 01282 843850 or at Info@earbyhistory.co.uk