AMONG heartbreaking correspondence between a Winsford First World War soldier and his sister are a trio of woodbine cigarettes that the brave British Tommy never got to smoke.

The final letter to Private Thomas Preston was returned to sender after the 19-year-old was blown up during the Third Battle of Ypres on September 26 1917.

A report from the Winsford Guardian reveals that Tom was killed when a shell burst in the trench while his platoon waited to advance against German lines at Polygon Wood, Belgium.

Thomas, of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, was one of three brothers who served their country.

Fred, Bill and Tom were part of a family of ten children who lived at 14 Chapel Street, where the Winsford Cross shopping centre now stands.

“They all went off to war in 1916. Tom joined up in the Cheshire regiment but after a short length of time they transferred him to the kinds own Lancaster,” said Gary Noden of his late great uncle.

“Bill and Fred were in the Royal Artillery. Tom was a very big letter writer. He wrote loads, all to his sister – my grandmother Beatrice Noden.

“Her mother, my great grandmother, didn’t keep good health, so Beatrice was the matriarch, the one who held everything together. She was the eldest sister and they all looked up to her.”

The collection of immaculately kept letters and paraphernalia were found by Gary in a trunk full of his late Aunt Minnie’s possessions.

They are now to be included in a new book by Antiques Roadshow presenter, Paul Atterbury, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War in 2014.

“It’s hard to read them because you get that upset,” said Gary, 64, of Grange Road. “They talk about how bad it was in the trenches and what they’ve been doing – going on marches all day and what it’s like at the front.

“I can’t read them. Even if they weren’t relatives, you wouldn’t be able to read them.”

Among a shoebox full of date-ordered correspondence is a cotton map of the front lines in France and Belgium, printed by the then Manchester Guardian to show troops where they would be located.

Elsewhere are general issue wellbeing cards, whereon the soldier indicates their health by scribbling out whichever of the multiple choice statements aren’t applicable to them.

Exactly a week before his death, on September 19, Beatrice received one of these letters from Tom, indicating in sparse detail that he was ok.

In the final correspondence to her brother, Beatrice mentions her children, Elsie, 10, and Minnie, 8, who wish for Tom’s safe return.

In the letter he never received, Beatrice writes: ‘Never mind, it might not be long before you come back. Love and the best of luck from your ever loving sister’.

“In those days, cigarettes came in a packet of three, so she’d just put them in for him,” said Gary. “But he was killed in action and it never got to him. It was put in a returned post envelope. Inside are three Woodbines that have stained the paper.”

Private Tom Preston worked for the Salt Union, and features in a book recording the deaths of the company’s employees.

The booklet records information across the page – name, age, address, regiment and a final chilling column that records their injury with words like ‘gassed’ and ‘wounded’.

Tom’s is one of the many that feature simply a black Maltese Cross to indicate killed in action.

In 1923, Beatrice died while giving birth to Gary’s dad - Thomas Preston Noden, named after Tom.

Gary himself carries Tom’s name, Preston, as his own middle name, and is glad Tom’s legacy will now be widely known.

“I always watch the Antiques Roadshow on a Sunday. A few months ago they said they were doing a special programme and book to commemorate the First World War, asking for any details viewers might have.

“I emailed them and about a couples of months ago I got an email from the producer in Bristol asking me to email some photographs.

“I sent the cigarette photo and she emailed straight back saying she was interested in featuring it in the book.”

Gary went to Rotherham, where the show was filming, to have photographs taken for the book, which will be out next year.

Gary said: “It’s great. I’m really happy because now it doesn’t get left in a box now. It gets shared with other people who can relate to it. People can know about him, about what a brave guy he was.”

 

Gary is hoping to track down surviving members of the Preston family in order to locate Tom’s medals and death penny – the circular disc given to the deceased’s next of kin.

 

The Battle of Polygon Wood.

Tom was killed on the first day of a battle that formed the second phase of the Third Battle of Ypres, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, or simply: Passchendaele.

The engagement began with a British push, alongside Australian soldiers, against the German lines on September 26, 1917.

Much of Polygon Wood itself has been obliterated by huge quantities of shellfire, turning the land between Menin Road and the woodland into a wasteland, pitted with blast craters.

The battle ended with allied victory, but cost 15,375 British and 5,770 Australian casualties.

The extent of German deaths are unknown.