The relative of a young soldier killed in the Great War has called for the return of a roll of honour left "forgotten" in an archive.

Sergeant Ernest Coleman, 18, from Epsom, survived the bloody battle of the Somme but is believed to have been killed by an enemy sniper in April 1917.

His name is inscribed on one of two rolls of honour removed from St Barnabas, in Temple Road, Epsom, by the current vicar and deposited at Surrey History Centre in Woking during the 90s.

Lynne Winstanley, a distant relative of Sgt Coleman, contacted the Epsom Guardian and said: "I believe that the roll of honour should be kept in the church where local people can view them."

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Sgt Coleman, of Church Road, Epsom, kept a war diary detailing life in the trenches including church parades, bullets whistling by and doses of rum before going over the top.

Ms Winstanley, from Lancashire, said: "In the diary he mentioned attending church services so it would seem fitting for the roll of honour to be stored at the church rather than be locked away and forgotten in an archive."

After the first day of the Somme, when there were 60,000 British casualties, Sgt Coleman’s diary becomes smudged and illegible.

He wrote of those first three days of the battle: "The last three, the blackest of my life so far have got accidentally smugged (sic) out - but they'll never get wiped out of my mind."

The final entry of his diary said: "Thus ends the year '16 & it's been the most adventurous I've had out of my 18 & I dare say it's more adventurous than any year the average man of 50 or 60 today has lived through.

"C'est la guerre. I've had & am having that experience that I enlisted for. I was made for a wanderer & I am a wanderer.

"I'm proud of the past 18 months of my life. Within a few weeks I hope to be on leave & leave this diary in safety."

He did leave his 1916 diary in safety but neither his diary for 1917 nor the diary of his company, 63 Company, the Machine Gun Corps, survived.

It is thought he was shot by a sniper during the Battle of Arras on the Western Front.

Reverend Sue Bull, speaking on behalf of the church, has welcomed the debate over the rolls of honour and invited people to a discusssion next week on how the church should remember the fallen.

Everyone interested is invited to the meeting on Monday at 8pm at St Barnabas, in Temple Road, Epsom.