A 40 YEAR mystery to find the origins of a First World War "death medal", given to the family of a soldier killed in action, has now been solved.

Tyldesley resident Norman Harris had asked the Journal to shed more light on a medal which had been posthumously given to the family of Walter James Dyer.

Mr Harris, of Sale Lane, bought the medal from a second hand shop in Atherton for 50p. The inscription on the five inches wide bronze medal read: "He died for freedom and honour."

Thanks to Journal readers Mr Burns and Frank Hinchliffe, they have solved the mystery of who Walter James Dyer was.

Walter James Dyer was born in Farnworth and enlisted at Bolton in 1914. He joined the 226th Siege Battery at Aldershot in September 1914 on the raising of the 15th Scottish Division.

This Division went to France in 1915 and was a wartime raised division of Kitchener's New Army. Gunner Dyer was killed in action on April 15, 1917 during the first battle of the Scarpe in France. There was no known grave, and he has been commemorated on the Arras memorial, Bay 1.

The readers believe that because there was no known grave for the Gunner, it suggests that he was killed by counter battery fire by the German artillery.

Gunner Dyer would have been entitled to the 1914-195 Star, British War medal 1914-20 and the Allied Victory Medal 1914-1919.

Mr Hinchliffe said he was delighted to have helped solve the mystery.

He said: "Gunner Dyer's family would have received the Death Penny to commemorate his service to his country. It's a hobby of mine to track down the whereabouts and life stories of soldiers who were killed in the First World War and I was happy to have helped find out about Gunner Dyer."