A NEW name is to be added to Watchet’s war memorial – and the search is on for living relatives of Gunner Harold Horsfield, who died in action in July 1943, so that they can be invited to the unveiling ceremony.

Recent research by Watchet Remembrance Project Group has revealed that Gunner Horsfield, who served in the Royal Artillery, is buried in St Decuman’s Church graveyard and is entitled to have his name on the town’s war memorial. Previously he had been Watchet’s unknown soldier.

“We would dearly like to have a family member at the unveiling of this new name later this year,” said the group’s archivist, Sara Summers.

She added that the unveiling would coincide with a handover ceremony to Watchet Town Council, which will become sole custodians of the memorial in Harbour Road.

Sara said that recent research into the St Decuman archives showed that Gunner Horsfield, who lived in Swain Street, Watchet, had an official Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.

The group has now instructed Wells Cathedral stonemasons to engrave the new name on the war memorial.

Since the discovery, Sara has searched army and electoral records and found that Gunner Horsfield had a wife named Gertrude and a daughter, Pauline.

She said: “A Watchet resident, Mrs Margaret Perring, remembers going to school with Pauline, who married Peter Hayes, a Williton man.

“A few other family members were living in and around Williton at that time but they may have moved to Bridgwater.”

Sara asks that could anyone with any information on the Horsfield family contact her at [email protected].