A POTATO expert has marked the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War by releasing a moving account of the lives of the 65 men from his village who died as a result of the conflict.

Steve Billings, of Sowerby, North Yorkshire, said the book was the result of 15 years' research that had led him to visit the Western Front battlefields in an attempt to provide a more personalised memorial to the men than the names on the village's three memorials.

He said he discovered that one of the men, Henry Pollington, had been just 17 when he joined up and was wounded six times and survived two gas attacks.

He said Mr Pollington survived the war and while serving in the army of occupation in Germany in 1919 had drowned aged 22 in a frozen lake after rescuing children who had fallen through the ice.

Mr Billings, who works for KP Snacks in Teesside, said: "It was amazing to discover that in the months after the war the Mayor of Cologne had sent a wreath to Mr Pollington's memorial service ."

He said he found another teenager from the village, John Warner, who died a month before the end of the war, had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and had been labelled a fighter ace after shooting down eight enemy planes.

The family of Mr Warner, who was reported missing in action after his plane crashed in France, spent months searching for him before learning he had been buried by the Germans.

Other startling finds included the story of 2nd Lieutenant John Walker, a 29-year-old teacher, who went back his dugout against medical orders after suffering a gas attack near Ypres, only to be killed by a shell.

Mr Billings said: "I didn't know much about the Great War when I started, and while at first I thought 65 deaths was a lot for a village which had 400 houses, now I think it was probably proportionate.

"I got quite a lot of information looking at old newspapers because they give a more personalised view.

"Some of the men went missing on a certain day, but you can locate the majority to a known battle."

He added each man would be remembered on the centenary of his death in St Oswald's Church, where his book will be displayed.