THE approaching commemorations marking the 60th anniversary of the Arnhem landings are made more poignant by the recent identification of the skeletal remains of a soldier from the Airborne Battalion of the Border Regiment, killed by shrapnel to the skull, and given a hasty unrecorded field burial in a nearby garden during the conflict.

Co-operation between the Dutch and British authorities identifies the soldier as Private Arthur Foster of B Company.

The Border Regiment comprised men from as far south as Preston and Blackburn.

Of the 788 Airborne 1st Battalion lifted to Arnhem in Horsa gliders are listed 121 known dead, 432 missing and 235 evacuated.

Sadly, according to present information, the tracing of Private Foster's relatives has been unsuccessful. Imagination needs no stretch to appreciate the anguish of his next of kin -- 'missing, believed killed in action' .

Such current personal tragedies belie the thought that the time is right for the details of 60 years ago to be confined to history books.

But do not tell this thought to the Dutch, to the people of Arnhem and Oosterbeek, who immediately joined our 1944 conflict when they could honourably have stepped aside, and who, in consequence, suffered heavily.

These allies brushed aside all criticism of strategy to pit lightly armed Airbornes against the might of German armour. To them it was the first action of liberation, and the 1st Airborne were liberators.

Their commemorations will be both deep and sincere on September 17.

The tragedy of the body of Private Foster which had lain unknown for 60 years in a garden is not unique. The field graves from all conflicts are giving up their dead 'missing, believed killed in action' gradually, year by year.

Ex-service associations cannot claim a major part, perhaps, in the comforting of next of kin, but their work is, nevertheless, important. We ask the public to acknowledge the help that they voluntarily give, and support individual associations and the all-embracing Royal British Legion.

LEO HALL (Public Relations Officer, Central Lancs Branch Parachute Regimental Association), Regent Road, Leyland.