LANCE CORPORAL 12767 THOMAS REYNARD, 9th BATTALION THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S (WEST RIDING) REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY).

LANCE CORPORAL 12767 THOMAS REYNARD, 9th BATTALION THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S (WEST RIDING) REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY). KILLED IN ACTION 25TH APRIL 1917. A.GED 27 YEARS

Upon the declaration of War on August 4th 1914 the War Office was acutely aware that the nation's small standing army was insufficient to conduct a large scale continental war. Reservists and Territorial soldiers would would bolster the numbers, but the recruitment of a volunteer army was essential if Britain was to match the numbers of men that France and Germany could put into the field.

Contrary to common belief, recruitment in the weeks immediately after the declaration of war was not brisk and it was clear to the Government that men needed encouragement to enlist. It was widely recognised that the army would need to tap the vast reservoir of men particularly in the industrial North and Midlands if they were to fully meet their needs. The idea of 'Pals' units where men from the same community could join together and fight together was devised to spur friends to enlist together. The scheme had the added advantage of inspiring a sense of local civic pride in the unit raised.

Towns and cities across the north of England rushed to recruit fighting units associated with a particular community. Ilkley was not immune from this movement and on the 28th August 1914 a recruitment meeting in the King's Hall resolved to recruit a company of men who would be known as the Ilkley Pal's.Tom Reynard was at that meeting and along with 120 young men from the town enlisted in the new company. Attached to the 9th Duke of Wellingtons the Ilkley Pals would train and fight together. 

Tom died in the same attack near to the village of Monchy in the Arras sector on 25th April 1917, as Tom Allerton. They had enlisted at the same meeting in 1914, trained together and ultimately they would die together.

Born in Appletreewick Tom Reynard was the son of a farm labourer who lived in an ancient house known as Mock Beggars Hall. At the beginning of the 20th Century the family moved to Langbar where his father William had the tenancy of Moor End Farm. Tom was described as a " fellow of literary tastes and intellectually refined" who worked as a bricklayer and helped his father on the farm. 

                                                                   Moor End Farm

Tom was only 27 years old when he was killed in front of the German Trenches at Monchy and he has no known grave. His name is now commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Arras and he is