American couple want to return WW1 soldier's papers to his family

A couple who discovered tributes to a World War One soldier in their hotel want to reunite them with his relatives.

Americans Whit and Kim Hanks bought the Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, in April and found the tributes in a box with other papers.

They now want to find the family of Capt John Robert Landon, who was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Other documents also relate to his brother, William, who survived the war.

They include a message from King George V and a scroll, which were issued to the next of kin of all members of the British armed forces who died during the war.

From 1919, about 1.1 million of them were issued.

Mr Hanks said the documents were "pretty pristine" and were found with what seems to be a photocopy of a photograph of the Landon family.

An identity book that belonged to William as a soldier was also found.

"I was thinking if I was a grandson or a great-grandson of the person and it just came to me I would think, wow. It just seemed it would be much too valuable [to leave behind]," Mr Hanks said.

"We don't have any culture of this in [the United States]. I don't know if this is unusual but it seems odd to me."

Capt Landon was 28 when he was killed on 3 September 1916 near the French village of Guillemont, which was left ravaged by the Battle of the Somme.

He is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial, which marks the deaths of more than 72,000 British and South African servicemen who died during the war and have no known grave.

Capt Landon was from a middle-class family from Shenfield, Essex, attending Brentwood and Felsted Schools, before working in business in India. A plaque celebrating his life was unveiled at Shenfield Parish Church in September 1917.

His brother, William, died in Banbury, Oxfordshire, aged 92 in 1978.

Texans Mr and Mrs Hanks, who own another hotel in Dripping Springs, about 25 miles (40km) west of the state capitol Austin, said they plan to spend between a third and half of their time in Wiltshire running the Old Bell.

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