Schoolchildren from the district will don old-style football shirts when they visit First World War battlefields.

The gesture will mark 100 years since Bradford City’s FA Cup win, while commemorating Bradford footballing heroes who lost their lives in the war.

The trip will form part of a series of events arranged by Aireville School, Skipton, to mark the Bantams’ 1911 cup triumph.

On April 26, the school will hold a football tournament at which a replica of the 1911 trophy, the Gunthorpe Cup, will take pride of place.

It will be brought by Lt. Col. David O’Kelly and Captain John Dennis of the Yorkshire Regiment, which is the custodian of the trophy.

Guests will also include representatives from Bradford City FC and Bradford Park Avenue FC.

And Nick Cusack, senior executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, will present 48 students and staff with replica, 1914-style, football shirts.

They will be worn when the school makes a visit to the battlefields of Flanders and the Somme in May.

The pilgrimage will include a visit to the graves of Jimmy Speirs, the City captain who scored the winning goal, and Donald Bell, who played for Bradford Park Avenue and won a Victoria Cross.

He was the first professional footballer to enlist and was killed in 1916.

Dominic Fitzgerald, who teaches history at Aireville and is a lifelong Bradford City fan, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic that, 100 years on, we are able to pay tribute, not only to Jimmy Speirs and the rest of the team, but also to ‘our’ local soldiers, in this way”.

Headteacher, Mark O’Neill, said the event was a chance for students to engage with the past in a way few people would ever be able to experience.