Grandad was war hero captured at the Somme

JACK Charlton’s grandfather was a First World War hero who was buried alive for six hours in an explosion on the Somme.

Jack “Tanner” Milburn was captured in the July 1916 Battle of Albert, the opening of the offensive. He spent more than two

The cherished family photo with fellow England legend Sir Bobby, 82, Gordon, 77, and Tommy, 74, was taken around 25 years ago.

It belongs to Gordon, the former merchant seaman who was in the South China Sea when Jack and Sir Bobby lifted the World Cup in 1966.

It is one of the last photos taken of the brothers with their mum Cissie before her death, at 83, in 1996.

Gordon’s wife of 49 years Jenny, 69, from Leeds, said: “It is a lovely photo. Jack stands out because he is so tall.

“The other three are so alike, like peas in a pod.”

Today, the Charlton brothers hope to reunite at Jack’s funeral in Newcastle years as a PoW. Born in 1886 his nickname came from being “half the size” of brother Bob (a tanner was half a bob in old coins).

Serving with the 22nd Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers, known as the “Geordie Gunners”, Jack’s war record shows him listed as “missing in action” – he had been buried so long that none of his comrades saw him captured.

His diary tells how German soldiers argued about “putting a bayonet through him”, but spared his life. It was January 1917 before his family learned he was alive. Writing of the “hell” of being marched hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, he said: “One wanted to put the bayonet through me. Many a time I wish they had done me in.” He died in 1949.