For 86-years the simple grave of William " Billie" Martindale nestled in gentle French countryside near the scene of trench war terror and turmoil which had taken the young soldier.

No one in his Kendal family had ever found the plot where the 24-year-old was laid to rest after he died from wounds, probably in a Great War field hospital around Morlancourt.

But during a holiday to Bruges, his great niece Ilene Holloway pledged to try to find the 1914-18 hero named on Kendal's Market Place war memorial.

Approaching the immaculately maintained cemetery, where around 70 allied soldiers are buried - five German graves have been removed - a Red Admiral butterfly rested on Mrs Holloway's chest.

"I am sure it was something to do with Uncle Billie.

Butterflies don't normally settle on you," she said.

Finding Grave A 19 was a poignant moment for The Westmorland Gazette's editorial assistant.

A simple headstone read: "In memory of W.

Martindale, Private 22309, 2nd Bn, Border Regiment, who died on Saturday, lst July 1916."

Billie had died on the first day of the Battle of Somme's big push.

Mrs Holloway remembered how, as a child, she had seen a lock of Uncle Billie's auburn hair, a family treasure belonging to her grandmother Nora Martindale.

"Nana always thought he had been blown up by tanks, but it seems as if he was taken to a field hospital," she said.

The village of Morlancourt was a quiet place, used by field ambulances in 1916, but was captured by the enemy at the end of March 1918, and held until August 9, when liberation came thanks to the Cambridgeshire Regiment.

"Official news reached Kendal on Wednesday that Pt W.

Martindale, of Rishton's Yard, had died of wounds on July 1st in France," said the Gazette of July 8, 1916.

"He had been in the 2nd Border Regiment just over a year and landed in France on December 16, 1915."

Billie had moved to Kendal with his parents two years previously and had found employment at the gas works.

The bachelor was described as a "fine young fellow and great favourite with all who knew him".

His two brothers, Privates Frank and Jack Martindale, also served in the Border Regiment.

Frank Martindale had been reported "killed in action" but had actually been taken prisoner.

Both survived the war.

Mrs Holloway, who was joined on her sad mission by husband Norman, explained the search for Uncle Billie started after her son Clive started to research the family tree.

Finding the grave took Mrs Holloway full circle from her childhood days and her grandmother's recollections of a brother who had paid the ultimate price of war.

The Great War claimed five million allied lives, three million German and Austro-Hungarian, and wounded a further 21 million.