THIS year's Remembrance services will be especially poignant for one Bournemouth man.

Scout leader David Oliver, of East Howe Lane, will travel to Bayeux military cemetery in Normandy this week to place a remembrance cross on the grave of Lance Sgt William Hill, who helped his grandfather when he was fatally wounded during the Second World War.

He will be accompanied by around 50 boys from the 43 Bournemouth Scouts, who will also place remembrance crosses on other graves of local regiments' war dead.

Lance Sgt Hill and David's grandfather, CSM James Oliver, were both in the 6 Battalion of the Green Howards, part of 50 Northumbrian division - reputed to be Montgom-ery's favourite division.

CSM Oliver, a father of four, was killed during the battle of Akarit in Tunisia when he was blown up by a shell.

He did not die straight away and two of his comrades, Lance Sgt Hill and Lance Sgt Bill Vickers went to his aid during his last moments.

Lance Sgt Hill was later killed on the beach at D-Day aged just 22, when he jumped from the landing craft into a shell hole under the water and the landing craft went over him.

Lance Sgt Vickers was known to be still alive only two years ago in Australia.

CSM Oliver is now buried in the war cemetery in Tunisia.

CSM Oliver and Sgt Hill served together through Dunkirk and all through the desert in North Africa. Sgt Hill went on to serve in Sicily and D-Day.

During 1940 the Green Howards were based along the Dorset coast in readiness for the German invasion. They were billeted in the Burlington Hotel in Boscombe and also stayed at Highcliffe Castle and Sandbanks.

David Oliver, 41, said that he only discovered the story of Lance Sgt Hill and his grandfather when his uncle Ken Oliver told him a few months ago.

Placing a poppy cross on Lance Sgt Hill's grave will be a "moving experience" he added.

He said: "We were going to Bayeux with the Scouts and he (Ken) said the young man who helped your grandfather during the war was buried in Bayeux. We thought we'd get some poppy crosses and put them on the grave.

"I'm not an emotional sort of person but when we took the Scouts two years ago some of them shed tears and so did the leaders. It's a very moving experience.

"I'm doing this because they fought for their country and if they hadn't done we wouldn't be here today and I'm grateful to him (Lance Sgt Hill) for helping my grandfather."