Mayor of Keighley, William Smith, died in Keighley and District Victoria Hospital on Thursday 10th January 1946, having served as Mayor for only two months. He’d been ill for a short period and had been admitted to Victoria Hospital before Christmas. Despite some signs of a recovery he died following a relapse. This was the first time one of the town’s mayors had died while in post. He was, according to the Keighley News, aged about 51. His funeral was held on 14th January 1946. It included a service at Keighley Parish church led jointly by the Reverend Eric Treacy, Rector of Keighley, and the Reverend Edward Askew John Miller, vicar of Ingrow St. John’s.
He commenced his time as Mayor on 9th November 1945 and his wife became Mayoress. His nomination to the post had been accepted back in July and was covered in the Keighley News of 21st July 1945: “Keighley’s next Mayor will be Mr. William Smith, of 207, Queen’s Road, Ingrow, whose nomination by the Labour members of the Town Council was accepted by the Mayoral Selection Committee on Monday. Mr. Smith is chairman of the Borough Labour Party, a former secretary of the Keighley Divisional Labour Party, and has served on the Keighley Town Council as a South Ward representative for two years… A native of Staincliffe, Batley, Mr. Smith has been in Keighley for about 40 years, and has long been prominently identified with the labour and trades union movement. An overlooker at Knowle Mills, he is a former president of the Keighley branch of the Managers’ and Overlookers’ Society, and as secretary and a member of the Executive Committee has rendered yeoman service to the movement… In the course of his work he had been agent to the late Mr. H. B. Lees-Smith, whose return to Parliament he materially helped to secure on a number of occasions. Mrs. Smith is a native of Keighley, and besides being intimately associated with the ladies’ section of the Labour Party has done useful work for 11 or 12 years on the Worth Valley Area Welfare Committee of the West Riding Public Assistance Committee.”
The main photograph shows the newly appointed Mayor, William Smith (centre with Mayoral chain), fulfilling one of the few duties he managed to carry out before becoming ill. He is laying a wreath at the base of the War Memorial in Town Hall Square on Remembrance Day, 11th November 1945, after his Mayoral Civic Service in Keighley Parish Church. On the right of the Mayor is the Reverend Eric Treacy, newly appointed Rector of Keighley, and to the Mayor’s left (in the wig) is town clerk Samson Walker.
He was succeeded as mayor by Alderman George H. Norton.
Cuttings from the Keighley News, main photograph from the archive of St. John’s Church. Researched and collated by Tim Neal.
