HE died in the jungles of Asia five years after the end of the Second World War.

Now nearly 60 years later, officials from the Ministry of Defence are searching for the relatives of the Royal Army Service Corps dispatcher from Bournemouth and with the technology of DNA, hope to make a positive identification of his remains.

Driver Peter Edwin Taylor, 20, was on board a Royal Air Force Dakota when it crashed into a ravine in Malaysia in August 1950.

All on board were killed, a total of 12 people, passengers and crew.

A rescue party arrived on the scene a week later and the bodies were buried at the crash site because of the difficult terrain and the security situation at the time.

British and Commonwealth forces were in a battle with Communist insurgents in what was known as the Malay Emergency between 1948 and 1950.

In July of this year and again last month, expeditions to the crash site by the Malaysian Army and the British Defence Attache in Kuala Lumpur confirmed the identity of the wreckage.

The team found a number of human remains.

MoD spokesman Lynne Gammond told the Daily Echo there are plans to re-intern the bodies at the nearest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

She added: “We are now looking for any surviving relatives of Driver Taylor with a view to possible DNA testing in order to clarify whether any of the remains found can be positively identified.”

Driver Taylor was born in Bournemouth on March 31, 1930.

His father, William, who served in the Army for 12 years, lived at 6, Paisley Road, Southbourne.

Driver Taylor is thought to have had an older sister who was married.

If you have any information, please contact Lynne Gammond, HQ Land Forces, Media and Comms, Trenchard Lines, Upavon, Wiltshire SN9 6BE.