The Huddersfield War Memorial Trust Fund
Said by people we’ve helped

Six long-form testimonials, named with permission.

Five voices from across the Huddersfield area, plus one from a partner organisation. We pay for the time of a documentary photographer to make these portraits each year, and we share the words exactly as they are spoken to us.

A small front room in a Marsden terrace with afternoon light falling across a wing-back chair, a folded blanket and a cup of tea
Margaret, 78, in her kitchen in Almondbury holding a mug, with afternoon light from the window to her left
Almondbury · A Necessity Grant

Margaret, 78

“After Derek died in the September, the rent was the thing keeping me awake. I’m not too proud to say it was. The Welcome Centre put me in touch with the trust, and a lady wrote to me with a form that was three sides, not seventeen. The trust paid a month, and I caught my breath. That’s what they did for me. They didn’t solve everything. They helped me catch my breath.”
Derek, 67, a former rifleman, sitting on a stone wall along the Holme Valley towpath with his terrier
Honley · The Listening Fund

Derek, 67

“The boiler had gone in the November. I’d been putting off the engineer’s bill since the August. They didn’t make me explain the war. Just asked when I’d be in for the engineer’s visit, and what day the cheque needed to clear by. That mattered to me, that they didn’t ask. I’ve told that story to a half-dozen lads at the Legion since, and they’ve gone in the same way and been treated the same way.”
James, 34, sitting on the steps of Huddersfield Library with a school uniform bag at his feet
Marsden · A Necessity Grant

James, 34

“Two school uniforms, a pair of boots, and Tom’s reading book replaced because he’d lost the old one. It’s small things, but they were the things I couldn’t do that month. The boys went back to school in shoes that fit. That’s what the trust did for us. People say charity is hand-outs. This was tools, that’s all. Tools to get a fortnight back.”
Helen, 52, head of fundraising at a children's hospice, photographed in the play garden at Russell House in Brighouse
Brighouse · A Convalescent Award · Forget Me Not

Helen, 52

“Forget Me Not has had an award from the trust every year I’ve been here, which is fourteen now. It is small, but it is steady, and steady is rare in our world. The 2024 grant resurfaced the play garden at Russell House. The 2025 grant went towards the seasonal lighting. The 2026 grant — agreed last May — will pay for two outdoor benches the families have asked for. They are not large gifts. They are the ones we know are coming.”
Thomas, 81, a long-standing Friend of Greenhead Park, photographed on a bench at the foot of the Cenotaph
Lindley · A volunteer of forty-six years

Thomas, 81

“I have been reading the names on the Memorial since 1979, on the first weekend after Easter, with a brush and a clipboard. The trust still pays for the chalk and they still bring tea in the bandstand. I am eighty-one. We are doing this properly. That’s what I’d like to be remembered for in this town — that I helped read the names properly.”
Anne, 71, a Marsden widow, in the front parlour of her terraced house, with a framed photograph of her late husband on the mantelpiece
Marsden · The Listening Fund

Anne, 71

“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. The money mattered. But the speed mattered more. You don’t go to bed counting the money. You go to bed counting the days you’ve been waiting.”
How we gather these

A note on consent.

Every testimonial on this page is offered with the full named consent of the speaker, recorded in writing on a short form we keep at our office. The portraits were taken by Sarah Holroyd, a documentary photographer based in Slaithwaite, who is paid through our governance budget line. Speakers may withdraw consent at any time and we will remove their words and photograph within five working days.