THE fascinating stories uncovered by two years of toiling research will finally be told at a special exhibition later this month, writes Simon Mulligan.

Members of the Rainhill Civic Society have dedicated themselves over the past couple of years to unearthing the stories of villagers who were involved in the Great War.

The aim has been to tell the story of how the First World War affected the village and outline Rainhill’s contribution to the conflict.

And their findings have gone beyond their wildest expectations with a whole host of intriguing tales coming to light.

Among them researchers found a link to Saints with the son of club founder William Douglas Herman also to be featured.

In addition, there will be the story of Ernest Mather, said to be the first soldier from Rainhill to go to the war, and a survivor of the whole conflict.

The exhibition will tell how the village was home to three VAD hospitals during the war, with a special autograph book among the exhibits which was owned by nurse, Edith Lidstone. She collected autographs of soldiers who were wounded or sick from the battlefields.

Continual efforts by the civic society enabled them to discover that Edith had died in 1920 and the book had been passed on to her sister, who later left it to her friends Jessie.

Following this it was eventually passed on to Jessie’s great-niece, Trish who kept it safe in Canada and has gifted it to the society back in Rainhill.

“This is very specifically about the impact of the war on Rainhill itself and on the men who left holes in the village,” said Ann-Veronica Howitt, of the Rainhill Civic Society.

“We have researched so many stories and have been working on this for the best part of two years.

“The stories we have found are so amazing anyone could write a novel about them.

“The links we have found are all around the world and we’ve been getting emails from places such as Australia, Canada and the Far East.”

“I think people will be amazed by what we have found out.

“Our longer term plans are to record this on the internet so that it is accessible for other people so that other people researching their family can find what we have found.

“We’re looking to have a website about the war linked to our civic society site.”

The exhibition is being held at St Ann’s Church, in Rainhill, on Friday, September 26 and Saturday 27 from 10am to 4pm.