ON a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1917, just about everyone in Skipton attended the public presentation of Military Medals to two of the town's men. Lesley Tate reports.

SKIPTON High Street was packed with 'almost everyone from the town' in the summer of 1917 for the very public presentation of medals to two soldiers.

The Military Medals had been awarded several weeks earlier by the King to Private J W Atkinson, and to Sergeant J Webster, both of the Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment for 'gallant conduct in action in France'.

But, following a bit of intervention by Pte Atkinson's mother, the medals were sent to Skipton and a ceremony organised with Walter Morrison, honorary colonel of the Volunteers, of Malham Tarn, to carry out the presentations.

Pte Atkinson, whose parents lived in Nelson Street, and whose wife and daughter lived in Devonshire Street. Believed to be the second soldier in Skipton to receive the Military Medal, he had received it for 'good work in attending to the wounded''. Before the war he worked in the town's gasworks and was also a fireman, unlike Sgt Webster, he was still in the army, but on ten days leave from the Front for the presentation.

Sgt Webster, who had joined the army at the start of the war, in the autumn of 1914 and was now a 'time expired man' and working for a Skipton coal merchant, had received his medal for 'continual bravery near Ypres between September and December, 1915."

Married, with two children, he lived in Hallam's Yard. He had served with the Territorials for 15 years and had returned from the Front in April, 1916, as a time expired man.

Several representatives of the local authority, and other organisations attended the presentation which was carried out on a Sunday afternoon, so as many people as possible could attend. A temporary platform, decorated with the flags of the allies, was put up in front of the main entrance to the town hall.

In addition to the dignitaries, special seats in front of the platform were provided for the wounded soldiers from the two Skipton military hospitals, and there were also a number of discharged soldiers, the Skipton special constable force, a number of boy scouts and girl guides, and representatives of Skipton Fire brigade.

Sgt Webster and Pte Atkinson were escorted from their respective homes to the town hall by a guard of honour formed of officers and men from the local volunteers. Headed by the town band, the procession made its way along Cowper Street, Sackville Street, Keighley Road and to the High Street where it was met with an enthusiastic reception from all those packed into the area in front of the town hall and the top of the High Street.

The then chairman of Skipton Urban Council, Captain Charlesworth, spoke for the town when he said how very proud all the citizens were of the two brave men and of their achievements in the field.

"We are glad of this opportunity of showing honour publicly, not only to them, but to all those brave men who have passed over in this conflict," he said, before passing over to Mr Morrison.

Mr Morrison, speaking with great passion and a patriotic fervour of the time, said how he believed it a great honour to take part in the ceremony.

He felt it was very appropriate as Craven men had always shown themselves ready to do their bit in defending their country.

He then spoke of the old 'Craven Legion', who some at the ceremony would remember, he was sure. Napoleon, who he described as a 'very able man' and far more than the Kaiser, and a man who 'fought clean', again, not like the 'Boche'.

Napoleon, he said, had very nearly succeeded in his dream of founding a European Empire, but English men had prevented him.

Mr Morrison's predecessor at Malham Tarn, Lord Ribblesdale, was the leader of this Legion of 1,200 men, including 200 cavalry men, he said proudly.

Mr Morrison said it had been a surprise to all - and to their enemies - that the country had been able to raise one million men in the first six months of the war and it was due to two facts.

Lord Kitchener - an old friend of Mr Morrison's - had done his bit, but men had also joined because of the 'atrocities' committed in Belgium, said Mr Morrison.

It was an absolute fact, he said, that Germans had "roped women and children together and driven them in front of the charging columns. No race of savages would have done that, they would have had too much pride and self respect,' he said.

Moving onto St Webster and Pte Atkinson, Skipton men should be especially proud of their two comrades, he said.

"They have done and shown what English soldiers can do. Pte Atkinson was awarded the medal on account of singular audacity, singular courage and ability. The first time his regiment went over the top he was recommended for this decoration. Five days after, he was again recommended, having been two days and two nights without food or sleep attending to the wounded," said Mr Morrison.

The private had been in the army right from the start, when there had been no compulsion either from the authorities for men to join up, he said. He had been a volunteer.

His friends and neighbours should be even more proud of him as he had been told, amongst them all, he was least likely to distinguish himself.

Mr Morrison reminded the crowd what it was like to be 'first over the trenches'.

"How he managed to come off without a wound is one of the great mysteries of the war," he said.

Mr Morrison confessed that before the war he had been afraid they were a failing race, given up to the worship of money making and to games, to the exclusion of higher things, but the war had called into action all the best in the nation. "Whenever I see a man in khaki, I always feel I owe a debt of personal gratitude to him," he said. "He is there to protect me and all that is dear to us all."

Amid a great deal of cheering, Mr Morrison pinned the medals on the breasts of the two men and at the call of captain Horsfall and Lieut Walton, three hearty cheers were given first for Sgt Webster, and then for Pte Atkinson, and lastly for Mr Morrison. The proceedings ended with the national anthem. The two men were then escorted back to the drill hall by the volunteers and the band, via Newmarket Street and Bunker's Hill.