INCREDIBLE tales about Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill and surviving Auschwitz have been uncovered by two amateur historians writing a new book about Wallingford's history.

Retired engineer David Beasley and builder Andy Russell's Wallingford At War uses photographs, documents and interviews to trace how people from the town have been involved in conflicts around the world since the Crimean War in the 1850s.

Along the way they have discovered some astonishing stories.

The pair uncovered a Crimean veteran’s letter describing how he was left wounded on the battlefield at Alma overnight, before meeting Florence Nightingale while receiving treatment.

And from more recent times, the book tells the story of Les Wear, interviewed by Mr Russell before his death aged 91 in August 2002.

During the Second World War, he was captured by the Nazis, after the submarine he was serving in was sunk in 1940.

Forced to labour in a German factory, when he was caught sabotaging operations, he was sent to Auschwitz, where he remained until the camp was liberated in 1945.

Mr Russell, 46, said: “We have found out he was recommended for the Distinguished Service Medal, but because there was only one witness to his actions, they did not give him the medal.

“I got to know him some years ago, and he told me snippets and took me to submariners' reunions. He was never one to boast about what he had done, but when I went through the records, I found out about the DSM recommendation.”

Mr Beasley, 69, of Winters Field, Crowmarsh Gifford, who has a huge collection of Wallingford photographs, uncovered another astonishing find when a Wallingford lady showed him snaps taken by her father, an army chef, during the war.

When he examined them, he realised they included close-up pictures taken at the 1943 Cairo conference, showing Churchill, US president Franklin Roosevelt and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, whom her father had fed as they plotted military strategy against Japan.

The book also includes photographs of the Wallingford Militia dating back to 1863 and the young Winston Churchill serving with the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars in 1910.

Mr Russell, from St Mary’s Road, Wallingford, said: “I have always been interested in the ordinary soldiers’ stories. So many books have been written about generals or the Victoria Cross winners, but so many people have an uncle, a granddad or a neighbour who have got incredible tales to tell.”

The book is available at Wallingford Bookshop and KP Newsagent in the town, as well as through online retailer Amazon.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk