Tommy Swinton's 'home help' loaded a bucket of smokeless onto the glass fronted fire and pulled on her coat.

"There ye are, Tommy love. That'll do the fire until tonight. I'll be round about eight o'clock to give it a shake," she said. "Right youse are, boys, I'm away on. Nice to meet youse."

We both murmured our thanks for the mugs of tea and scones which she'd rustled up in Tommy's kitchen.

"She's a great wee girl," declared Tommy, as the door closed.

And then he began ...

"Me Da said he wouldn't put his dog in the British army," laughed Tommy, fingering the old photograph. "Moaned about the drill and the parades, the grub and the rough oul uniforms for years when he came back from the first war.

"Then the oul fool was first down to the recruiting office when the second one came along!"

He passed me the photograph for inspection while he explored the contents of an old leather schoolbag.

From the picture, Billy Swinton stared out. He was bareheaded and cleanshaven. His cap was in one hand, a 'walking out cane' in the other. It's hard to tell from a photograph but I reckoned he was of average height for the period.

There were two wound stripes on his sleeve.

"Did he tell you much about the war,?" I asked.

" ... then there were the rats," sighed Tommy. "Me Da hated rats all his life. He told me once they got fat on the bodies. They didn't care who they ate, French, British or German. Me Da said the war was a feast for them rats. Hated them he did."

"Mr. Swinton," I asked, seriously. "Did your father ever mention a lad from Mudcaster by the name of McCallion? You see, I think your father may have met this man during the war and I'm fairly sure it was not in pleasant circumstances. I'm tracing the history of this man for his family and they are anxious to know as much as possible about him."

Tommy Swinton's eyes glinted in the firelight. He brushed crumbs from the arm of his chair and looked up.

"He mentioned McCallion alright," said Tommy. "He was the boy that was shot by his own officer out in no-man's land."