The family of a York soldier killed during the Second World War is to be reunited with a forgotten piece of his wartime history thanks to the Evening Press.

Valerie Walton, of Dringhouses, only daughter of Sergeant Alfred Emmerson, is thrilled at the discovery of personal papers which the father she never knew is likely to have carried into battle.

The Army paybook of Sgt Emmerson, who served with the 1st Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), had been locked in a Russian vault for more than half a century.

It was among a collection of documents returned to the Ministry of Defence last year after negotiations with post-Cold War Russia.

They are believed to have fallen into German hands when individuals, or posts holding the paperwork, were captured. The documents were later whisked to Moscow, with a mass of German papers, taken when the advancing Soviet Army swept into Berlin.

The MoD is to hold an official handover ceremony, at the Imperial War Museum in London, in November, where Dr Lewis Moonie, Under Secretary of State for Defence, will hand back the papers.

Mother-of-five Mrs Walton, 56, a cleaner at Acorn Rugby Club, in Thanet Road, learned the good news from an article in Friday's Evening Press.

Donald Brind, who lives in Rawcliffe, York, who served with Sgt Emmerson at Catterick and then York and was best man at his wedding, said: "Alf was the tops. We were the best of mates and we were never apart."