Pack’ barman s love to fight d didn’t return

dale 1918 series. she says sadly: he war. a e e t e d e

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d ry her, who is one on the village’s lliams was one of the 49 who served and returned home. Along with Joshua, Private Walter Ives, 35, Private Philip Keighley, 19, and Second Lieutenant Arthur Max Spencer, 19, were killed in action.

Bev says: “We hold a memorial service every year in Esholt and I thought it would be nice to find out more about the men.

“I’d been using an ancestry website and one day I got a message from a lady called Mary Foster, who was living in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

“And she asked me why I was researching her grandma’s boyfriend. Because Winnie had kept all her letters and gifts from Joshua and Mary had found them after she died.

“I explained and Mary was thrilled.” This

EMMERDALE ACTRESS

summer Mary Foster visited Esholt, bringing Joshua’s letters and gifts with her.

She donated them to the village and they are now on display at the pub where Joshua’s journey began – now called The Woolpack. The little exhibition also includes some soil from Joshua’s grave in Belgium, which Bev’s husband Phil brought back from a visit.

But the story is not quite over.

Bev discovered that Joshua was awarded three medals, but has been unable to trace them. She says: “We’d love to find out if anyone does have Joshua’s medals.

“When Mary gave us Winnie’s love letters, she said, ‘I wanted to bring them home, for Joshua.

“Bringing home his medals would be a wonderful end to the story.”

Emmerdale 1918 is on ITV1 tonight at 8.30pm.

LOCAL LEGEND Pub in the old days and as Woolpack