AS the nation pauses to remember those who fell in the First and Second World Wars the search is on for relatives of a Moulton soldier who was injured in a plane crash in 1945.

Pte Joseph Evans was born in February 1923 and lived at Glendale, in Moulton.

He was on board the ill-fated Stirling LJ899 which crashed in Lake Rojden in Sweden on May 10, 1945, killing four men and injuring two.

A memorial has been erected at the crash site and organisers are appealing for information about relatives of the men on board so that they can join the 70th anniversary commemoration next year.

Lt Col Bengt Fransson, one of the organisers, said: "In the first week of peace in Europe, the RAF lost more than 140 aircraft due to accidents or adverse weather conditions.

"Out of that total three Short Stirlings were lost on May 10, 1945, when they were en route to Gardermoen airfield on a mission to bring peace to German occupied Norway.

One of these, the ill-fated LJ899 'L9-Z', with the 22-year-old Fg Off Eric Atkinson from Sheffield at the controls, made an emergency landing in Lake Rojden on the Swedish/Norwegian border."

The aircraft, carrying a crew of six and 18 troops from A Company, 7th (Galloway) Battalion took off from Great Dunmow, in Essex, at 2.30am on May 10.

During the flight over the North Sea Atkinson noticed the aircraft was dipping slightly to the left.

Flight Engineer Sgt William Wright discovered that the fabric was stripping off the port outer wing and, as the flight continued, the dip to the left became more pronounced.

Atkinson was battling to get the aircraft to climb so they could return to base when the Stirling stalled and went into a dive.

He managed to wrestle it into a steady dive and ditched over the lake.

The research team think Pte Evans' daughter lives in Winsford.

Anyone who can help should email Mary Ghrist at ghrist@waitrose.com