A BIBLE lost in the battle for Hill 60 in Gallipoli 100 years ago has been returned to the relatives of its original owner by a man from Chippenham.

Tim Molloy, 66, of Tytherton Lucas, had the Bible, which was picked up by his grandfather Henry Molloy, passed down to him and decided to trace the family of the original owner.

The small pocket Bible was inscribed with 'R. P. Hadden, Temp Lieut R.A.M.C.' under which Henry Molloy had written the time, date and place in which he’d found it.

Using this information and with help online at the Great War Forum, Mr Molloy managed to track down the great niece of Mr Hadden, Avril Hogan, to Carlow in Ireland.

And on the exact 100th anniversary of the battle for Hill 60, the two families met at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin to celebrate their shared connection to the Great War.

Mr Molloy said: “I decided that in this 100th anniversary year it would be fitting to try to trace any of his descendants and to return the Bible to them.

“I thought it would be exciting and interesting and I was curious about whom it might be. I just thought it was obviously an important possession and it turned out very well, they were absolutely thrilled and very excited to receive it.

“Her great uncle, after the war which he survived, he went out to be a medical missionary in China so was obviously a religious chap which is why he had the Bible with him.”

In July 1915, Mr Molloy’s grandfather, Henry Molloy, volunteered to go out to Gallipoli to join his own regiment, the 5th Ghurkhas and was later awarded with a Distinguished Service Order for his work there.

At dawn on August 22, 1915, half way up the hill, Henry Molloy with the 5th Ghurkhas waited in some shallow trenches, as the 18th Australian Brigade attacked the Turks.

During the ensuing battle on Hill 60 Richard Hadden, army doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps, dropped his pocket Bible which Mr Molloy retrieved and kept with him for the rest of the campaign.

He copied some verses into it, and marked up passages that he must have felt helped give him courage to carry on.

“It’s given me a lot of satisfaction to give it to someone to whom it means so much,” Mr Molloy added.