AS THE country approaches the hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918, The Folly museum at Settle is staging an exhibition of the final few months, and the impact it had on the people of Settle and surrounding villages.

1918:The Long Last Mile will run until just before Christmas. It is the fifth in a series of commemorative exhibitions staged at the museum and it is part of the Craven and First World War project.

As in previous exhibitions, the museum has concentrated on the fortunes of the 6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

Many of the area’s young men joined the regiment, and it is though their diaries that the museum has gained much of its material.

It also follows the fortunes of Doris Procter, who joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) at the outbreak of the war, and her bother, Sidney, an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy.

Doris died in December, 1918 from pneumonia, and Sidney died from his wounds at a field hospital in September, 1918.

The siblings are remembered by a stained glass window at Holy Ascension Church, Settle.

The exhibition also looks at the part played by the newly formed Royal Air Force (RAF), the development of motor transport, and what life was like at home, including the shortage of food.

It also covers the role of women, the fate of prisoners of war, and the death of the Rev Theodore Bayley Hardy, V.C., D.S.O., M.C, the most highly decorated non-combatant of the war.

Curator Kate Croll said over the last four years, the museum through its exhibitions, had been discovering the impact the war had on the people of North Craven

“Many of the local lads joined the 6th and so with the aid of the war diaries, we have been with them during the German Spring Offensive when the war was nearly lost," she said.

"The 6th hung on, but on a dreadful day on April 14 at Nieppes, they were forced to retire, losing 65 men with 211 wounded.”

In the autumn of 1918, they were part of the final push against the Germans, advancing into occupied France, helping to free Valenciennes, but again at a terrible cost.

l The Folly Museum is open every day from 1pm to 4pm.