THE STORY behind the soldier who became a symbol of the sacrifice of war for school pupils has been told.

Year 9 pupils from Highworth Warneford School visited the gravesite of Private Charles Hill, from their home town of Highworth, as part of their history trip to Belgium's First World War graves and battlefields.

But they were unable to find out how he had died or his life before the war.

Jose Hunter, whose mother was married to Mr Hill, wanted to give an account of his life after she was moved by the pupils’ remembrance actions reported in the Advertiser last week.

Mrs Hunter, 86, of Bob May Court, Eldene, said: “I thought it was wonderful what they did.

“It really took me back when I saw the article, it brought the tears to my eyes.”

Mr Hill is buried at Oosterverne Wood Cemetery, in Belgium, and Mrs Hunter believes no-one from the family has ever been able to go out to visit it before.

He was found by the school through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

The 47 pupils involved were struck by this local connection and laid a wreath, conducted a one-minute silence in his memory and read the traditional Remembrance Day poem In Flander's Field.

Mrs Hunter said her mother Mabel Hill was told of her husband’s death by telegram.

She found out later, possibly from his fellow soldiers, that he was killed by an enemy sniper after he put his head above the trenches by mistake.

Mr Hill was in his 30s when he died and had two children, Maud and Gwen.

Born in 1923, Mrs Hunter said she and her older half-sister Gwen never knew him.

After the war ended the family moved to Swindon around 1921.

“She had to get the strength to bring us up and she did,” said Mrs Hunter.

She said her mother and Mr Hill had lived near to St Michael’s Church and he had worked at the old mat factory in Highworth while his father had been the postmaster.

Mrs Hunter said it had been a happy marriage.

“She never moaned about him, she was very happy with him,” said Mrs Hunter.

“They were together years and years, they were married when they were quite young.”

After his death, Mabel kept some of his correspondance from the front including birthday cards that said “take care of little Gwennie”.

His name, she believes, appears on a war memorial just inside the churchyard of St Michaels Church, Highworth.