WHAT's in a name? Sometimes a very great deal.

Until he was in his thirties, York architect Matthew Laverack never even knew about his father's uncle John, who had died in the First World War.

"When I was a boy at school in the early 1960s nearly everyone's dad had been in the Second World War and nearly everyone's grandad had been in the First World War," he says.

"No one thought anything of it. Our parents and grandparents had been through terrible experiences and wanted to put those hard times behind them and look to a more positive future. They just wanted to get on with their lives."

It was only in a conversation years later with his father Wallace William Laverack that Matthew learned about his lost great uncle.

He was 35 at the time, and decided to find out about his relative - only for all his efforts to draw a blank.

"I could find no record of a John Laverack that fitted exactly the known facts," he says. "There were a number of J Laverack entries and some from Yorkshire but none were exactly right.

"I went on solo cycle trips to the first world war battlefields but could not find the elusive John Laverack. On one trip, on the way home, I called into the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headquarters in Maidenhead. They were professional and helpful but couldn't locate my relative."

Then another chance remark led to a breakthrough. He'd told his father that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission had no record of a John Laverack. His father replied: "Well they won't have, because his name was not Laverack but Laverick."

Mr Laverack isn't quite sure why his great uncle's surname was spelt differently. "There were fanciful stories about family arguments and fights and people changing their names but I think it was all talk and speculation," he says.

"The most likely explanation seems to be it was the way the official Registrar of Births heard it and wrote it down. Many people were illiterate, or had poor writing skills at best.

"When asked her surname the mother would say 'Mrs Lavruck' or something like it. The registrar might then write it 'Laverick' or 'Laverack'."

Whatever the reason, the discovery that his great uncle John's surname was Laverick, not Laverack, led to a breakthrough.

He was able to discover that Private John Laverick of the 2nd/ 4th Battalion the Hampshire Regiment, who had been baptised at St Cuthbert's Church in Peaseholme Green in 1899, had died on September 28, 1918, at Havrincourt in France.

Havrincourt village was the site of bitter fighting in 1918. Having been taken by the Allies in 1917, it was lost to the German spring offensive in March 1918, then retaken on September 12, 1918, as the First World War neared its end. "It seems likely that John Laverick was killed in fighting to hold on to the village," Mr Laverack says.

He discovered the location of his great uncle's cemetery - the Grand Ravine Cemetery in Havrincourt - and decided to pay it a visit.

It was 1992. "I set off, by bike, to Hull where I caught the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge," he says. "I cycled through Belgium to Ypres, under the Menin Gate memorial and on to the rolling hills of Northern France. It was a deeply moving experience.

"I was completely alone and travelling by pedal power. As I got closer and closer to Havrincourt the feeling of emotion and apprehension became palpable. I found the small village and in the centre a sign pointing to Grand Ravine Cemetery.

"It was just outside the village in a corner of a field. It had a covered entrance gate through an enclosing wall. In the entrance structure is a kind of built-in cupboard containing a book with details of the graves.

"Sure enough, there he was listed. J T Laverick, Private, Hampshire Regiment. Grave C.15 - the front row of three lines of identical military headstones.

"It was an incredible experience. I had a lump in my throat - even though I never knew this young man who had died 37 years before I was born."

York Press:
 The house of Matthew Laverack’s grandfather, also Matthew, on the corner of Layerthorpe and Duke of York Street. The Laverack house was demolished in about 1963

In June 1993 he returned to his great uncle's cemetery: this time in a minibus with his father, his brother Geoff, Harry and Robert and his nephew Toby.

"They all found it an emotional experience just as I had done," Mr Laverack says. "We had a wonderful few days visiting not only the First World War battlefields, but also the places my father had passed through on active service in 1944/5. I remember my father standing in exactly the same spot in Ypres main square where he stood when he saluted Montgomery towards the end of the Second World War."

Mr Laverack's father Wallace William Laverack died on April 14 this year, aged 90. A second world war veteran who drove a Cromwell Tank in the closing stages of the war, his family arranged that during his funeral at York Crematorium his coffin was carried on a truck in a mock up of a tank.

"Now that my father has gone I am so pleased that, together with my brothers, we made that pilgrimage to France," he says. "It means a lot to me. Don't put off talking to your parents and grandparents. Hear their stories while you still can. Before you know it they are no longer here."

York Press:
MYSTERY TOUR: A photograph of a trip by Layerthorpe Working Men’s Club Members, a mystery journey from Navvies Corner in 1949. Matthew Laverack’s father Wallace William Laverack was the last survivor of this group, until his death last month at the age of 90. Pictured are: back row, from left, Harry Allinson, Dick Kent, Stan Machant, Arthur Savory, Wallace William Laverack, bus driver (name unknown), George Hope, unknown, Frank Evans, Matt Faulks, unknown, Martin Taylor, Walt Gamble, Fred Laverick (Matthew Laverack’s great uncle, Harry Gregory, Matthew Laverick (Matthew Laverack’s grandfather.  Front row, from left, Dougie Rankeiler, Matthew Laverack (Matthew Laverack’s uncle), Jerry Cattlin, Harry Lions, Mr Cross, Bill Blakie,  man known as Little Butcher, the man who supplied meat to Matthew Laverack’s father) and Charlie Whitehead