AN ancestor of a nineteenth century soldier from Church is appealing for help to find a diary of his memoirs 150 years after his death.

Anne Grimshaw has been trying to piece together information about Coldstream Guard Thomas Pollard, who lived in Henry Street in Church and fought in the Peninsular War until his death on December 21, 1859.

She recently managed to track down a rare nine-bar Military General Service Medal awarded to the soldier in 1848 and saw it for the first time last week.

But now, Anne is determined to track down his diary which has gone untraced since extracts appeared in the Accrington Observer in 1941.

Anne said: "I hadn't heard anything for eight years until November when a lady sent me an email saying 'I'm the owner of Thomas Pollard's medal'.

"I was just blown away - it turned out she lived in Hertford and had been sitting on this medal just eight miles down the road from where I live in Sudbury."

Last week, Anne, 62, went to see the owner, Carol Charville, who had inherited the medal from her father Joe Garner, who lived in Church for most his life.

She got in touch with Anne after seeing her story on a Lancashire-based website.

Anne, who believes she is related to Thomas Pollard's brother-in-law and Battle of Waterloo veteran John Grimshaw, says the medal has now been bought by the Coldstream Guards Association who will display it in their museum.

She has tried to track down the diary since a report in the Accrington Observer said it was handed to Church Urban District Council when his grandson (also Thomas), and former headmaster of Church Kirk School, died.

Anne says it was kept with a photocopy of a discharge paper given to the soldier in 1814.

He was buried in St James' Churchyard in Church, and Anne has had a plaque installed at Immanuel Church in Oswaldtwistle where Grimshaw was buried in an unmarked grave.

She said: "She (Carol) remembers her dad buying the medal at auction.

"She didn't do anything with it until September when she took it into a local valuer.

"This is the best outcome to have it in the care of the regiment - it could be worth anything between £4,000-£8,000.

"I'm as determined as you possibly can be to find the diary - it might have been thrown away but these items are like two microcosms of England's history."

If you have any information on Thomas Pollard's diary, contact Anne on: 01787 375736 or email: a.grimshaw@talktalk.net.