WHEN Joseph French joined the British Army before the First World War he was given a Bible by a Christian society in line with a tradition going back to the Civil War.

Having joined the Leicestershire Regiment, he received the DCM (Distinguished Conduct Medal) for bravery during the war, and later went on to serve in the Second World War, receiving the MSM (Meritorious Service Medal) in 1952.

He died in 1955, receiving full military honours at his funeral.

The Bible was long lost, but now it has been it has been found and presented to Joseph’s son, also called Joseph. It was discovered in a drill hall in Leicestershire with his father’s name and number inside.

Joseph junior, now 80, of Fulford, York, who served in the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, said he had been tracked down after letters had been sent to six or seven members of the old comrades association who were all called French.

He said his letter was sent to an address in Leeds where he had lived temporarily, and it had only reached him in York several months later. He knew straight away that the Bible had belonged to his father, because he knew his Army number.

Joseph, who served in Korea and is secretary and standard bearer of the York branch of the British Korean Veterans Association, was handed the book by branch chairman Victor Geesing at an association meeting at the York Railway Institute.

Joseph said he had been told someone had been asked to dispose of a quantity of books that had been stored at a drill hall in Ulverscroft Road, Leicester.

The books may have been moved there in the 1960s when Glen Parva barracks, just outside Leicester, where his father had been based, were closed down.

Joseph said he planned to get a special case made where he could keep the Bible alongside the medals he and his father had received and his father’s silver cap badge.