DELVE into the lives of soldiers and volunteer nurses in a new interactive exhibition about the First World War.

The exhibition will offer visitors the chance to see digitised pages of an autograph book which belonged to one of the Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses (VADs) at Rainhill Hospital.

A new website created by Rainhill Civic Society will also be on display and includes a searchable data base for all the 53 soldiers commemorated on war memorials in the village.

It also contains details of some of the soldiers who survived the war and on other servicemen and women with Rainhill.

There is information on some of the thousands of injured men from all parts of the country and abroad who were treated at Tower Oakdene and Oaklands VAD Hospitals and on the nurses who worked there.

Also there are fascinating insights into the lives of many members of the Stapleton-Bretherton family of Loyola Hall during the First World War and of Rainhill families who ‘kept the home fires burning’.

From Remembrance Sunday it was possible to log on to rainhillmembers.uk to see what three years of research by members of Rainhill’s Civic Society’s Heritage Group have discovered.

It will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in local history or someone who is researching their family tree. The society is looking for stories onto hear from anyone who can add to the heritage of Rainhill.

Go to rainhill-civic-society.org.uk for further information.