TEENAGE Keighley soldier John Willie Greenwood arrived in France in September 1917 – and was dead the next month.

The proud Guardsman was killed during his first engagement with the enemy at the campaign in Ypres.

He was killed instantaneously by a shell whilst consolidating a position his platoon had captured that morning.

Ingrow-born John attended Keighley Trade and Grammar School then, then as a 19-year-old textile worker with Robert Clough at Ingrow, he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards.

Following his death, a sergeant said that although the battle was Private Greenwood’s first “real good fight” he never showed fear.

A lieutenant told John’s parents: “He died the finest death possible, freely giving his all for his country and for everything which makes life worth living.”

The Keighlian, the magazine of Grammar School old boys, recorded that John had loved his home and detested war in any shape.

While in training he wrote home, contrasting the sights he witnessed, such as budding snowdrops and raindrops hanging on the trees, with the rampant bloodshed of raging war.

The Keighlian finished its article by saying that noble young men as John would not have died in vain if sentiments such as theirs increased in power and volume, until they eventually cast out the “Kaisers, War-mongers and Secret Diplomatists” of every nation.