Families finally reunited with Korean War heroes

FAMILIES who did not know the last resting places of British troops killed in the Korean War have finally grieved at their graves 73 years on.

- Giles Sheldrick

Sgt Donald Northey and Maj Patrick Angier were among those who died as the vastly outnumGloucestershire Regiment delayed Chinese forces enough to let UN troops save the capital Seoul.

Both fell in the Battle of the Imjin River in April 1951, in a conflict that has still not officially ended.

Sgt Northey, the youngest of 13 children, was 23 when he died but his body was never identified.

Mourn

For decades, it lay in an unmarked grave in a UN cemetery in Busan, on Korea's south coast, with this plaque: "Member of the British Army, known unto God."

Sgt Northey's name is now on the headstone thanks to forensic researcher Nicola Nash, from the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre at Imjin Barracks in Gloucester.

Michael Northey, 71, was a baby when his father went to war but finally he has been able to lay flowers and mourn at his grave.