A HISTORIAN'S research into the fate of the Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars at the Battle of Qatia in 1916 revived more local memories.

The Evening News report described how John Watts, of Bromwich Road, has investigated all 102 names on the World War I memorial in St John's Cemetery and found that a number were killed or taken prisoner at Qatia, Egypt, on Easter Sunday, 1916.

Geoff Hutchinson, of Coombs Road, Worcester, was reminded of his uncle, Corporal Reginald Henry Lee, of Brook Cottage, Callow End, who was in the Worcestershire Regiment and is believed to have died at Qatia.

A comrade later said he had seen Reg lying wounded in the sand after the ambush of the British troops by a Turkish force, but his body was never found.

Reg worked as a groom on the Croome Estate and was one of eight brothers and sisters, including Mr Hutchinson's mother and his aunt, Margot.

"After the war, an Australian soldier wrote to my aunt, saying that he later went through that position at Qatia and found a wallet lying in the sand, with my uncle's name in it.

"He and my aunt went on corresponding until they both died, about 20 years ago," said Mr Hutchinson.

"Reginald's name is on a memorial just outside Jerusalem. He was 24 years old and was the only one of the family to be killed in action, but his father and mother, my grandparents, died from the flu epidemic on the same day in 1919."