AN auctioneers is hoping to reunite a collection of items relating to a World War One soldier with his family more than a century after his death.

Sam Atherton was just 21 when he was killed in France in January 1917 while serving with the Manchester Regiment Machine Gun Corps.

Before enlisting Sam lived at 64 Hampton Road, Bolton and he worked at the Card Room, Arrow Mill, Castleton.

Incredibly, the collection which includes a death plaque, medals , photographs and a series of heart-breaking letters was recovered in a storage unit in Wolverhampton with no links to Sam's family.

Midlands-based auctioneers Fieldings are now keen to trace any of Sam's surviving relatives in the Bolton area with the hope of re-uniting them with the precious treasure trove and finding out more about Sam's short life.

Rachel Holland, head of business development at Fieldings Auctioneers, said: "The letters are all addressed to his mother and father, and he talks about the perils of serving between 1915-1917.

"All were sent whilst serving for 18 months in the trenches in France and they are an overwhelming insight in to the life of a young man serving during the First World War.

"They are heartbreaking and he talks about the war hopefully being over one day and how he hopes not to 'snuff it'.We've all been in tears reading them and we would love to try and reunite these items with any of his distant relatives."

Machine Gun Companies operated the Vickers machine gun which was used to support the infantry, who were mostly armed with slower firing and shorter ranged rifles.

Rachel added: "We have so much information about this young man, his thoughts, feelings and even the address he resided in and where he worked.

"If you have any information, please help us to get these items back to where they belong."

To get in touch with Rachel go to fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk or email: rachel@fieldingsauctioneers.co.uk