LIKE so many of her generation, Geoff Ellin's mother Kathleen never talked much about her life during the First World War - or about the loss of her beloved elder brother Thomas Lees.

He was a company sergeant-major with the 4th Battalion the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry: and he was killed in action on July 23, 1916, at Authuile in France during the Battle of the Somme.

Among Kathleen's most treasured possessions were photographs of her brother. One shows him lounging at ease in a field, in full uniform. Another shows him perched on the edge of a bomb crater, presumably somewhere in France.

His mother talked a bit about him, said Geoff, 76, a retired ship surveyor who lives at Copmanthorpe - but never in much detail. "That was a generation thing," adds Geoff's wife Libby. "The war was over, he had been killed, end of story."

Behind that stiff upper lip, however, there must have been real anguish. Kathleen had lost her mother a few years earlier; and her father - a respected Congregational minister also called Thomas - died just a few months before her brother was killed in action.

Within months of her brother's death, at the age of just 21, Kathleen herself enlisted to do her bit for King and Country, joining the

Women's Forage Unit of the Army Service Corps. Geoff believes it may well have been the death of her brother that prompted her to join.

A photograph shows her standing erect and proud in her service uniform, her gloved hand resting on the back of a chair.

Geoff has always understood that she held the rank of Lieutenant: and he still has in his possession the Sam Browne belt she is wearing in the photograph.

He believes that she was barracked in York, from something she once said. But other than that, he knows little about her years of service - except that she was demobbed in 1920.

"She never spoke about what she did," he said.

He assumes her job was to supervise the collection of forage, which would then have been shipped over to the front line.

"There were hundreds of thousands of horses involved in the war, so I assume the forage department would have been getting food for horses at the front," he said.

Another photograph Geoff has shows his mother, with two other women, on a horse-drawn dray: presumably one of the carts used for gathering forage.

Because his mother was so reticent, much of what he has been able to learn about her brother - his long-lost uncle Thomas - has come from research that he and his wife have done themselves.

Thomas, Kathleen, and Kathleen's younger sister Dorothy grew up in Normanton near Wakefield and latterly in Pollington near Snaith, where their father, Thomas Lees senior, had moved to be the Congregational minister.

Thomas junior trained to be a teacher at what was then the diocesan training college in York - later York St John. A report card describes his 'pleasant manner' but notes that he was not good at imposing discipline.

"Though occasionally very successful with teaching, he does not prepare consistently well," the report says.

Geoff believes his uncle's report card may give a clue as to why, when war broke out, he wasn't commissioned as an officer. As a minister's son that would have been normal. "But he wasn't very good at keeping order, and I think that's why he was a sergeant rather than an officer."

Thomas initially joined the 3rd Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, but by 1915 he was a lance-sergeant with the 4th battalion, and was recruiting in Sheffield.

One thing Geoff discovered - to his great surprise - while researching his uncle was that Thomas had actually been married: something Geoff's mother never mentioned; not even in her journal. Geoff only found out because Thomas had listed his next of kin as his wife.

More digging revealed that Thomas's bride was Cicely Eames, the daughter of a printer from Normanton.

Neither Geoff nor his elder brother Len had had any inkling of her existence: but Geoff has now managed to track down a copy of the couple's marriage certificate - and even a picture of them taken on their wedding day.

They show Thomas in his uniform, with his sergeant's stripes - and Cicely in a neat dark suit with dark hat. Both were 26. Cicely looks rather grave - possibly because she knows her husband will soon be sent to the front.

The discovery of this long-lost aunt means that there is a whole new branch of the family the Ellins have never met.

Any children would have the surname Lees, Geoff says. "So if there is anybody, we would love to hear from them."

After the war, Geoff's mum Kathleen married Robert Ellin, a farmer from Pollington. The couple had two children: Geoff, and his older brother Len.

And what about the youngest of the Lees siblings, Dorothy?

A photograph shows her, too, in a First World War uniform - this one with wings on the sleeve, so she may have been in the RAF, Geoff thinks.

Dorothy married Ernest Sykes in 1923, and in 1925 the couple emigrated to Saskatchewan in Canada. Their son Donald still survives - though he spends his winters in Arizona to escape the fierce Saskatchewan winters, Geoff says.

If you are related to Cicely Lees, and would like to get in touch with Mr Ellin, contact Stephen Lewis on 01904 567263 (email stephen.lewis@nqyne.co.uk).

York Press:
Thomas Lees, back row, second right, while he was studying at what is now York St John

York Press:
Geoff Ellin, of Copmanthorpe, looking through some of his family records relating to the First World War