THE remarkable story of a family caught up in the First World War has been uncovered with the help of the Warrington Guardian archives.

Maxine Foley has been researching her family history at Warrington Library.

The woman in the picture, right, is Jane R Bolton, five of her children and great grandchildren served in the Great War.

Jane is the the sister of Maxine’s great great grandmother Elizabeth Ellen Foley .

Maxine takes up the story: “Jane’s Grandson was taken in to captivity .Herbert Bolton served in the war and sadly in November 1914 he was wounded and taken prisoner in a German prisoner of war camp .

“Herbert spent four birthdays in captivity and never got out as he died in captivity on November 14, the war ended on November 11.”

Many prisoners of war were not released until January 1919.

The Guardian archives revealed how a friend of Herbert’s wrote to his mother to explain what happened.

He added: “He wrote and told his mother of his death and the article also said he visited his mother too ,that is why the information on his illness and his funeral is in such detail.

“It was really lovely to hear that Herbert’s friend did this for him and gave a grieving mother and her family a little bit of comfort to know her son was buried in a respectful way and had a good friend with him in such terrible conditions to help him.

“The second article explains that Herbert sent a picture to his mother of him and his comrad ,he writes to ask for footwear as his are worn out.To know he wrote to his mother and she would have shown this to his grandmother and family is a real gem of information.

“If someone is in a prisoner of war camp is bad enough but to know his mum sent him parcels and they wrote to each other is amazing to hear.

“The archives at the Warrington family history desk are amazing .

“Thanks to these great facilities at the library I made both these discoveries .I would love to find out the name of Herbert Bolton’s comrade to have a face of the man who informed and visited his family is lovely.”

If anyone can help or any members of the Bolton family connected to Jane can help, please get in touch with us via newsdesk@guardiangrp.co.uk and we will pass your details on to Maxine.