WW2 soldier traced after Leicester charity shop letter appeal

Pte William Gower survived wounding and imprisonment but what became of Dolly is unclear

The family of a prisoner of war who featured in World War Two letters found in a charity shop has come forward.

The letters, from Dolly to Billy, were found wrapped in a curtain donated to the LOROS shop in Glenfield, Leicester.

Billy - Pte William Gower - survived Japanese prison camps and later settled in Nottinghamshire, it has emerged.

He eventually married another woman. But what became of Dolly, and how the letters came to be in the curtain, remains a mystery.

Pte Gower, who was originally from Norfolk, died in 1995 but his relatives were traced through a family history website and alerted to the original appeal.

His son Trevor Gower, who still lives in Mansfield, said: "As soon as we found out about the letters we contacted my mum, Mary, who said she remembered a Dolly.

"But of course no-one knows how the letters came to be in the curtains.

"They look as if they have been well looked after - it would be wonderful to trace Dolly's family to tell the other side of the story."

A museum holds Billy's bullet-damaged pay book and a post card mentioning Dolly.

Pte Gower survived a number of harrowing wartime experiences, including being shot and having the bullet removed with a kitchen knife, working on the Burma railway and being close to Nagasaki when the nuclear bomb was dropped.

Some of his items are on display in the Norfolk Regiment museum in Norwich.

A LOROS spokesperson said: "We're delighted to have found Billy's son, Trevor, to pass these precious love letters on to.

"It's good to know that his family will have an insight into such significant events in their father's life."

Anyone with information about Dolly is asked to contact LOROS, which offers hospice care, directly.