A man was amazed after reading an article in the ECHO about an item he bought at a car boot sale.
Russell Benson, 59, visits the same car boot sale in Preston, in Lancashire, every week to look for antiques and items he can upcycle. During a recent visit earlier this month, Russell bought a shell case for £7, which he thought he might turn into a vase or lamp.
However, upon closer inspection, Russell realised the case was engraved with the words 'Kitty', 'Somme' and a Lancashire rose, followed by the date 1916. After doing some research online, Russell found an article in the ECHO about WWI widow Kitty Eckersley, who was seven months pregnant when her husband Percy Morter died on the Somme.
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The article mentioned a bullet that Percy had hand carved for Kitty before his tragic death – which Russell believes is the same shell case he found at the car boot sale.
Russell, from Lancaster, told the ECHO: "When I found this originally I thought I'll turn this into a lamp, that's normally what people do with these things. When I looked at it I thought this was made for somebody.
"I saw the words 'Kitty' and 'Somme', and then the Lancashire rose, and it's dated on the bottom: 1916. I thought this was definitely made by a Lancashire solider in the trench in 1916 for his wife, or his girlfriend called Kitty. I just thought that's amazing."
Russell said: "I looked online and saw the interview with Kitty Eckersley. I thought that's probably not her but I kept looking and this story came up on the ECHO with Carrie Thomas and I thought that's got to be her.
"It's a remarkable coincidence when you think about it. It's the power of the internet. 20 or 30 years ago we would never have been able to get close to doing that. The fact you can put a name in [search engine] and that comes up."
The ECHO article from February 2014 includes an interview with Carrie Thomas, Kitty's great-granddaughter, whose family's story was retold by the BBC to mark the centenary of the outbreak of WWI. In the 1964 recording, Kitty told of her heartbreak at losing her husband near la Boisselle during the first week of the Battle of the Somme.
Russell is now hoping to track Carrie, from Rufford, down and reunite her family with the shell case that he believes belongs to her grandmother.
Russell said: "I could instantly feel reading the article in the ECHO how Carrie thought very fondly of her great-grandmother. If that was my great-grand mother and someone had found that I'd think it's nice to have it back."
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