A BLACKWOOD history group’s year long commemoration of the First World War was completed with rolls of honour marking local men who died in the conflict returning to the town’s library.

The Blackwood and District Heritage Association’s Nick Haynes put the records together with help from his late cousin Les Jones, who lived in Llanelli. They were launched at the library last year and kept at a variety of libraries and community centres.

He said the project originally consisted of three books being written up – but it had snowballed to include another 29. They include the names of soldiers on war memorials in Blackwood, Oakdale and Pontllanfraith.

Mr Haynes said during his research he had found that a significant proportion of those killed had not been recorded because of the disorganised way names were collated.

He said: “If your relatives were in your name got on the memorial; if they weren’t in your names wouldn’t get on there.”

He himself has interesting family history. HisMr Haynes’ grandfather, Samuel Haynes, was born in Ludlow in 1899, later moved to Blackwood and served on the front line when he was 16 – and underage – in the Monmouthshire Regiment. On his age being discovered, he was sent back home – but re-enlisted when he had turned 18 in September 1917 with the South Wales Borderers. He was promoted to Corporal and won the Military Medal for bravery.

Over the last year, other books have been presented to dignitaries,. They including New Zealand rugby bosses who collected a record of players who had been killed in the war when they visited Cardiff for the country’s match with Wales last November.

At the event Mr Haynes also brought a Japanese sword surrendered to his great uncle and Samuel’s brother, Joseph Haynes, who served in the RAF during the Second World War. It is thought the sword was surrendered in Saigon in modern day Vietnam by a Japanese commander at the end of that war. It was handed down to the keen historian after Joseph died in the 1980s.