POIGNANT letters from a First World War soldier have been the inspiration behind a musical production which it is hoped might help trace members of his family.

The show, which has been praised by minister of culture Fiona Hyslop, is also aimed at raising money for a lasting memorial to the fallen of a Scottish town.

The cache of old letters was discovered by retired police officer Mary Boylan and her friend Liz Reid when they were helping to clear the home of Liz’s late aunt 11 years ago.

Tied with faded pink string, they told of an intimate friendship between Liz’s aunt Bet and a young man, David Wallace Dinwoodie, who enlisted as a private and later received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant with the Cameronians, Scottish Rifles. He fought in France, was horrifically injured after being shot in the face but was sent back to fight in France after being patched up in a British war hospital. He was killed just a few months later on April 19, 1917, at Ronssoy, France, aged 23.

Just before he was killed he wrote: “I wish this war was over. There are so many fine young fellows being killed.”

A friend and fellow soldier later wrote to Dinwoodie’s parents to tell them he had been shot “clean through the head” as he urged his men to continue their advance on the German lines.

HOW MUCH IS KNOWN ABOUT HIM?

MOVED by his letters and a signed photograph of David, Mary was determined to find out more about him. She discovered that he was the son of Samuel and Helen Caroline Dinwoodie, of Bath Street, Glasgow, although he was born in Kirkmichael, Dumfriesshire, in 1894. His siblings were Samuel James; Herbert Walter; Euphemia Helen Caroline and Frank Dykes.

Tragically another brother, George Sinclair, who had also fought in France with the Highland Light Infantry and was injured on two occasions, received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant attached to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, and was killed in a flying accident, in Yorkshire, the following year. He was 26 and was buried with full military honours in Glasgow.

Mary discovered that Scottish Screen Archives (now known as National Library of Scotland’s Moving Images) has actually a short film of his hearse and mourners, leaving the family home in Bath Street.

“It’s only a 90-second clip but it is very sad,” said Mary.

Other than that, however, information about the young soldier is scant and Mary has not yet been able to find any close living relatives although she and Liz did visit David’s grave at Templeux-le-Guerard near the Somme in France.

“We planted a white rose named On Parade as it was so apt,” said Mary. “Once we were there with the shadows lengthening round the grave I did not want to leave him – I felt I had really got to know him through these letters. But he was just one of many slaughtered during that war.”

IS THERE MORE?

THE story might have ended at the graveside had Mary and Liz not then gone to see a show at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall called Far, Far from Ypres. Put together by Ian McCalman of the McCalmans folk group, it was a musical tribute to the dead of the First World War.

“In the programme, Ian mentioned that if anyone was interested in putting on a similar local show that he would allow it to be based on his script, if required. I was really keen and talked Liz into it and decided if it went ahead the proceeds should go to having the names of the war dead from both wars put on a signboard beside Broxburn’s War Memorial, as many local people wished.”

After a lot of work, Mary and Liz, a former music teacher, succeeded in putting together a West Lothian version of the show using David as a main character and including four new songs.

Two of these had been written by a Broxburn soldier, George Coyle, who was killed in France, and were found scribbled on bits of paper amongst his belongings and returned to his family. They have never been sung until now. The other two songs were written especially for the show by a local man, Peter Duffy. One is about the Red Cross train that brought wounded soldiers from Southampton to Bangour War Hospital, near Broxburn, and the other is called Remember the Fallen.

WHAT MAKES IT SIGNIFICANT?

IN West Lothian, as in other places, young men were eager to sign up for the “big adventure”. Their story is told in song, poetry and narration, accompanied throughout by informative slides onto a screen behind the performers on the stage.

The cast’s age range is from 14 to 70 and includes stunning performances by pupils from local secondary schools, and West Lothian Schools Pipe Band. The songs are a mixture of First World War songs for all to sing, soldiers’ songs, current folk songs, and the four new songs.

The show is due to be staged at Bathgate Regal Theatre on February 12 and Mary says it would be “her dream” if any of David Dinwoodie’s relatives saw the publicity and came to the show. She has found the names of two possible relatives, a Donna Loutet and a D Dougall who may have links with Australia but she has not been able to trace them.

West Lothian: Far From Ypres was first performed in Broxburn in November, 2014, and the following year in Bathgate, to sell-out audiences, which included Hyslop and former local MP Tam Dalyell whose grandfather fought at Gallipoli.

He later described the show as “a most moving and emotional occasion” while Hyslop tweeted: “West Lothian – Far from Ypres, in song and local story - powerful and poignant, performed wonderfully by local musicians and school pupils.”

This year performances will be at 2pm and 7pm on February 12 in Bathgate Regal Theatre, tickets £12/£10 from the box office 01506 630085 or bathgateregal.org.