FOR 95 years after Alexander Wallace was killed on the Western front, his family have known nothing about his life or death.

When he was killed at Neuve Chapelle, France, in 1915, his body was never found, his daughter Alec had yet to be born, and his grandchildren grew up only knowing he had died during the First World War.

But now Jane and Stephen Burr have finally been able to lay a wreath in his memory on Remembrance Sunday, after discovering amateur historians had pieced together his life story because his name appears on a crumbling North Oxford war memorial.

Captain Wallace, of the Northamptonshire Light Infantry, was 33 when he was killed on March 12, 1915.

He had married in Marston and his wife would give birth to a girl, named Alec in his honour, six months after his death. But when his widow re-married, he was rarely mentioned.

Flt Lieut Stephen Burr, a training coordinator with 55 Squadron at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, who laid the wreath, said: “My grandfather was killed before my mother was born so he is a distant figure.

“We welcome this opportunity to remember him here in Oxford, and each Remembrance Day I take the opportunity to remember servicemen I have known who have died over the years.

“I have been in the RAF for 23 years and served in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo and I’m glad that current conflicts are now being thought of on Remembrance Sunday as well as the two world wars.”

Miss Burr, 70, from Windsor, added: “We really did not know very much about our grandfather at all.

“He is somebody I had never known and never really known anything about. Even my mother never knew anybody other than her stepfather.

“My grandmother never really talked about him. Her life had moved on because it had to.”

She added: “My own mother died in 1964, and when I was younger, I did not think of these things.

“As I grew older and realised another generation was coming through, the more I began to think about what had happened.

“To find all this out with the help of people from the church is extraordinary.”

The family came face-to-face with an image of their grandfather when they discovered both Alexander and his brother Cyril Wallace’s names appeared on the war memorial at St Margaret’s Church, on the corner of Kingston Road and St Margaret’s Road.

Campaigners are trying to raise £20,000 to save the distinctive crucifix, which is on the verge of collapse due to deathwatch beetles.

As part of their efforts, Headington historian Stephanie Jenkins has researched the lives of the 47 men listed on the memorial and published her findings online.

She found a picture of Capt Wallace when playing in the First XV at St Edward’s School, and learnt of his travels around Africa in the years leading up to the First World War.

Cyril died a year after his older brother while serving in modern-day Iraq. The two brothers were listed on the memorial because their mother, Eleanor Wallace, lived in Frenchay Road.

To make a donation, visit stmwarmem.org.uk AROUND THE COUNTY

  • Representatives from RAF Benson joined local dignitaries to march through Wallingford before a service in the Market Place, above.

The Act of Remembrance began at 11am, when the chaplain read a roll call of all the names inscribed on the town’s war memorial.

  • An inter-faith ceremony held at the Commonwealth War Graves Section of Botley Cemetery, in North Hinksey Lane, also attracted hundreds of people.

After an address by retired Baptist minister, the Rev Hedley Feast, four soldiers from Dalton Barracks provided a guard of honour at the stone of remembrance.

Guides and Brownies from local troops left poppies at one of the graves.

  • The community paid tribute in Bampton, where at least 14 families have sons or daughters in uniform.

Members of the Parachute Regiment, including Lance Corporal David Radband, 24, who grew up in the village and is preparing for his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, were among those who attended.

Also at the service was Lee Mackie, mother of Marine Jason Mackie, 21, who was killed when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Basharan area of Helmand in 2009.

  • In Abingdon, Alison Rich played the last post on her cornet, as she has done for nearly 20 years.

Beforehand a church service was held at St Helen’s Church before the town band led the congregation to the war memorial in High Street for the wreath laying.

  • Members of the Royal British Legion joined those from Bullingdon Prison, RAF Croughton and local Scouts and Guides troops for Bicester’s ceremony.

After starting at St Edburg’s Church in Church Street, the parade headed along Causeway and around Market Square. Town mayor Richard Mould took the salute.

  • The Remembrance Day parade in Banbury left the Town Hall in Broad Street at 10.15am before making its way to St Mary’s Church for a service.

Afterwards, wreaths were laid at the war memorial in People’s Park, before the parade made its way back down the high street.

  • The parade in Didcot was the last to start, with those taking part leaving from Edinburgh Drive at 2.45pm and travelling up Broadway to the war memorial behind the Civic Hall.

The service was attended by mayor John Flood.