MRS June Russell (nee Templeman) contacted the Echo after seeing the article on the men and women from East Cliff Congregational Church who fought in the Great War printed on November 5.

Her father Tom Templeman, and the William Templeman mentioned in the article, were cousins from the East Cliff church that joined up to fight in the conflict abroad.

Born in 1899 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Tom moved to Bournemouth with his family when he was a baby. His father was a stonemason so the family lived wherever he could get work.

“Tom served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and was in battle on The Somme at Saint Quentin,” said June who was a Girl Guide division commissioner for Bournemouth East.

“He spent a year living with a German family in Cologne as part of the Army of Occupation.

“He was in the Machine Gun Corps and received the Victory Medal and British War Medal. He also had an Iron Cross given to him by a German soldier at the end of the war.”

After the war he became a commercial traveller and also compiled puzzles for magazines as he loved writing.

Married at East Cliff Church in 1924, his daughter June was born seven years later.

Like so many soldiers, Tom was often reluctant to talk about the war.

June remembers the only thing he said was that the Salvation Army was the only volunteer organisation who came into the trenches when the soldiers were in battle.