ONE of the few local surviving Japanese prisoners of war laid a wreath in remembrance of fallen Second World War comrades at VJ Day on Friday.

Jim Surr, of Embsay, had been commemorating Victory over Japan Day alone at Skipton War Memorial for several years until the Skipton branch of the British Legion heard about it and offered to lend its support.

This year about 20 ex-servicemen and their partners offered a minute's silence at 11am while Mr Surr laid his wreath.

The day also saw the first official outing of the legion's newly reformed Women's Section.

The original section folded in the 1980s due to lack of interest but the legion has found new support.

The group was formed officially on Wednesday and has seven members. They include women whose partners are ex-servicemen, one lady whose son is in the army and 17-year-old Hannah Gregory who knows of family members who served in the forces.

Chairman is Mary Bell whose husband is an ex-soldier and secretary is Carol Bentley whose father served in the forces and whose partner is in the army cadet corps.

Miss Bentley said she had wanted to join a women's section and when she contacted headquarters she was asked to re-establish a Skipton branch.

Its duties will be to raise funds for benevolent schemes that help ex-servicewomen or the widows, wives and children of servicemen.

Miss Bentley said their other job was to promote the welfare scheme because there were women living in the area who could benefit from these funds.

Nationally there are 70,000 members of the Women's Section who raise about £1 million a year.

The Skipton branch will meet once a month at the White Rose Club and membership is open to any woman. Miss Bentley said it was a chance to meet new people and fundraise for a good cause.

Friday's parade was also an opportunity for British Legion members to express their displeasure about the poor state of the war memorial.

Alex Bentley said although it had been cleaned some of the names could not be read. He said the branch would offer a financial contribution to Skipton Town Council to get a stone mason to do some work on it.