Charity shop hopes to find Northamptonshire Regiment soldier's family

The scroll was found after the person who donated the books had left the shop

A charity volunteer is trying to track down the family of a soldier who died in the Battle of the Somme after finding a scroll in a pile of books.

Barbara Daniels found the item whilst sorting donations at the Lions Book Shop in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

The commemorative document marks the death of Pte William Leonard Chapman from the Northamptonshire Regiment.

Ms Daniels said: "Somebody brought in a load of books, in amongst these books was this scroll."

She explained that people donate books to the shop, which raises money for the Lions Club charity, and they are then sorted later.

"We say thank you and off they go," she said.

Barbara Daniels said the book sjop raises money for the charity which works in the local community

The 79-year-old said she has been sent details of Pte Chapman which show he was killed in action in France on 29 September 1916.

According to the Herts at War Project (HAW) project, he was 31 when he died and was in the 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment.

The Northamptonshire Regiment

Edgar Mobbs, who died in the Battle of Passchendaele, was one of the best known members of the Northamptonshire Regiment

This infantry unit was formed during the 1881 Army reforms.

It continued in service until 1960, when it was amalgamated with The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment to form the 2nd East Anglian Regiment.

The regiment raised 11 Territorial, Garrison and New Army battalions during World War One.

The 7th Battalion was led by Northampton Saints and England captain Edgar Mobbs who raised what became known as the "Sportsman's Battalion".

Source: National Army Museum/Northampton Saints

The details show he was from Potton End, also in Hertfordshire, where he is listed on the church's war memorial.

Ms Daniels said she was going to go to the memorial in an effort to track down the family.

She said the charity would "like to return the scroll to the family if possible".

More than 300,000 soldiers died in the Battle of the Somme