The last post has sounded for an Otley veterans group after more than half a century.

The 279 (Otley and District) Squadron Air Training Corps' Old Comrades Association has been holding annual reunions since 1948.

But, with an ageing membership, the numbers attending have got smaller each year, leading to a decision to consign the organisation to the history books.

More than 40 former ATC members - including some from as far away as Belfast and Devon - and their guests spent a nostalgic evening reminiscing, remembering missing colleagues and paying their respects to the squadron's colours during a dinner at Otley Golf Club.

Group Captain N A Cross - the Chief of Staff at Air Cadets Headquarters, who is currently based at the RAF College at Cranwell - was guest of honour at the group's 53rd and final reunion.

Association secretary Geoff Storr, 73, who signed up with the squadron in 1942 before joining the RAF just after the war, said: "The evening went off very well and there was a lot of nostalgia but inevitably it was quite sad, being the last event for something that started back in 1941.

"But I think we've done the right thing because if you carry on with these things too long people get too old to organise the events or come along.

"It's very sad but every year there are fewer and fewer of us and this year I had to read three death notices, which illustrates the problem.

"It will be missed but we felt it was better to go out on a high while there was still a reasonable number attending rather than hanging on and seeing it wither away and die.

"If we kept it going there would soon be nobody left. But people have built up a lot of friendships over the years and this is the end of an era.''

The ATC squadron was formed in 1941 by Otley Rotary Club as part of a national drive to attract youngsters to the RAF.

The squadron folded in 1947 and a year later the Old Comrades Association staged its first reunion.

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