The Huddersfield War Memorial Trust Fund
Registered charity 220016 · Founded 9 May 1922

We’ve kept watch over the Cenotaph in Greenhead Park for a hundred and four winters, and we’re still small enough to write back by hand.

The Huddersfield War Memorial Trust Fund is a quiet Yorkshire grant-maker. We look after the town’s Memorial in Greenhead Park, and we make small relief grants to ex-service neighbours, to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, and to people in necessitous circumstances who live within twenty miles of the Town Hall.

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Caring since
1922

A declaration of trust signed in the year the Cenotaph was first proposed for Greenhead Park.

Voice from a beneficiary

“The grant arrived inside a fortnight. No fuss. We could finally fix the boiler before winter.”

Anne, 71, Marsden
Coming up

Remembrance Sunday
Greenhead Park

Sun · 08 Nov 2026 · 10.45
0
Granted in 2024
0
Households supported last year
0
Trustees, unpaid, all local
0
Years caring for the Cenotaph
What guides us

Four quiet promises, kept since the Declaration of Trust was signed on 9 May 1922.

Our charitable objects are unchanged since the trust was first constituted, and amended only once, by resolution dated 15 April 1957. They give us a narrow remit, and we like it that way.

Object I

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

A standing annual grant supports projects at the Royal Infirmary that fall outside core NHS funding — comfort items on the wards, a memorial bench, equipment for the day clinics.

Object II

The Memorial in Greenhead Park

Maintenance and repair of the War Memorial erected in Greenhead Park, Huddersfield. We commission stonework, conservation reports, and the annual cleaning before Remembrance.

Object III

Education, maintenance, benefit

Small relief grants to persons in necessitous circumstances who meet the scheme’s criteria — a winter fuel top-up, a school uniform for a service family, a single-month rent arrears settlement.

Object IV

Care institutions within twenty miles

Convalescent homes and institutions caring for the sick, poor, and needy located within a 20-mile radius of Huddersfield Town Hall. Forget Me Not, the Welcome Centre, Holme Valley Memorial Hospital — partners we’ve known for years.

Our six programmes

Six named lines of work, all of them ordinary, all of them rooted within twenty miles of the Town Hall.

A conservator brushing lichen from the inscribed names on the Huddersfield Cenotaph in Greenhead Park
Programme · Greenhead Park

Memorial Care

Conservation, cleaning, and the slow correction of weathered inscriptions on the Cenotaph. Every name we still cannot quite read keeps us turning up.

Read more
A volunteer in a navy fleece pouring tea for a veteran in a Huddersfield community hall
Programme · Ex-service neighbours

The Listening Fund

Hardship grants of up to £500 for veterans and their families across Kirklees. We answer within seven days and we ask few questions.

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An autumn view across a hospice garden in the Holme Valley with a wide Pennine horizon
Programme · The 20-mile radius

Convalescent Awards

Annual grants to convalescent homes and hospices within twenty miles of the Town Hall, towards comforts, equipment and garden upkeep.

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A kitchen table in a terraced house in Marsden with bills, tea and a folded grant cheque
Programme · Necessitous circumstances

The Necessity Grants

A small fund, replenished each spring, for one-off relief in necessitous circumstances. Referrals come through trusted local partners.

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A nurse arranging a hand-knitted blanket on a chair in a quiet ward at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary
Programme · Acre Street, Lindley

Royal Infirmary Award

A standing annual grant to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, agreed each year in conversation with the hospital’s charity team.

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A bugler in a navy greatcoat playing the Last Post at the Huddersfield Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday
Programme · 11 November & the Sunday nearest

Remembrance Together

We support the town’s civic Remembrance Sunday service: stewarding, sound, accessibility, and the lining of the names with chalk.

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The base of the Huddersfield Cenotaph with a single wreath of red poppies and a bronze name plate
Campaign · The 2026 Conservation Appeal

A full conservation survey of the Cenotaph, the first since 2009.

The Memorial stonework needs a fresh assessment before we plan the next round of repair. A heritage conservator’s survey, joint repointing, and the recutting of weathered names — together it costs £14,400. We are part of the way there.

£9,680 raised so far £14,400 target
Give to the appeal
Quiet, useful roles

We’re a small trust, but a few hands a year make the difference between a quiet success and a stretched one.

Role · Annual

Cenotaph Steward

A morning a year, on Remembrance Sunday, with the parade marshals and the Greenhead Park staff. Hi-vis provided.

Volunteer 
Role · Quarterly

Grants Reader

An afternoon four times a year reading applications ahead of the trustees’ meeting. Discretion essential, lived experience welcomed.

Volunteer 
Role · Occasional

Name-Reading Volunteer

Help us read the 3,439 names cut into the Cenotaph one summer afternoon, so we can keep the inscription record accurate.

Volunteer 
Stories from the area

Small grants, told as plainly as we know how.

Margaret in her kitchen in Almondbury, holding a mug, looking out of the window towards Castle Hill
Story · Almondbury

Margaret, 78

“After Derek died, the rent was the thing keeping me awake. The trust paid a month, and I caught my breath.”

Read Margaret’s story
Derek, a former rifleman, sitting on a low wall on the Holme Valley towpath with his terrier
Story · Honley

Derek, 67

“The boiler had gone in November. They didn’t make me explain the war. Just asked when I’d be in for the engineer.”

Read Derek’s story
James, in his early thirties, sitting on the steps of Huddersfield Library with a school uniform bag at his feet
Story · Marsden

James, 34

“Two uniforms, a pair of boots, and Tom’s reading book replaced. It’s small things, but they were the things I couldn’t do.”

Read James’s story
Granted, year by year

Eight years of small, deliberate giving.

Our annual outflow tracks the income from our modest investments and the generosity of Huddersfield residents who remember us in their giving. We do not chase growth.

In the diary

Upcoming gatherings.

All events
08
Nov
Sun · 08 Nov 2026 · 10.45

Remembrance Sunday — the civic service at the Cenotaph

The town’s annual service at the War Memorial in Greenhead Park. Wreath-laying, the Last Post, two minutes’ silence. All welcome.

Event details
14
Mar
Sat · 14 Mar 2026 · 14.00

Trustees’ open afternoon — Holmfirth Civic Hall

An informal conversation about our grant-making and the year ahead. Tea, biscuits, and a chance to meet four of the trustees.

All events
26
Apr
Sun · 26 Apr 2026 · 11.00

A name-reading morning at the Cenotaph

We need three hours and twenty volunteers to read every name aloud and check our register. Bring a flask and a folding chair.

All events
Latest from the trust

News & small dispatches.

All news
Voices from the area

Said by people who’ve sat at our table.

“I was widowed in the autumn. The form was three sides and the reply came in twelve days. That is what made the difference, more than the money.”Anne, 71 · Marsden
“Forget Me Not has had a grant from the trust every year I’ve been here. It is small, but it is steady, and steady is rare.”Helen, 52 · Brighouse · Hospice partner
“They paid for the boiler engineer’s visit, and they asked nothing about Belfast. That mattered to me, that they didn’t ask.”Derek, 67 · Honley
“Two uniforms, a pair of boots, and a reading book. The boys went back to school in shoes that fit. That is what the trust did for us.”James, 34 · Marsden
“I have been reading the names on the Memorial since 1979. The trust still pays for the chalk. I am eighty-one. We are doing this properly.”Thomas, 81 · Lindley
Friends and partner organisations

The people we award alongside, and learn from.

The Royal British Legion · Huddersfield Branch Huddersfield Royal Infirmary Charity Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice The Welcome Centre, Huddersfield SSAFA West Yorkshire Combat Stress Kirklees Council, Bereavement Services Holme Valley Memorial Hospital The Friends of Greenhead Park The Royal British Legion · Huddersfield Branch Huddersfield Royal Infirmary Charity Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice The Welcome Centre, Huddersfield SSAFA West Yorkshire Combat Stress Kirklees Council, Bereavement Services Holme Valley Memorial Hospital The Friends of Greenhead Park
Quarterly dispatches

Four short letters a year. No campaigns. No appeals between them.

A spring update on grants made, an autumn note on Remembrance, and two short pieces in between. We promise to keep it brief.

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