The Bible, issued to troops in World War One, was found in Preston by a man who tried to trace the family of its owner Thomas Ryan through an appeal in the Express letters page.

Featherstone historians Ian Dransfield and Tony Lumb researched Mr Ryan, and a Rita Plimmer of Featherstone who also had her inscription in the book, to find their descendants.

The Bible – which has two pages stained with blood – has now been given to Featherstone Library.

Mr Dransfield said: "The Bible is a curious item and we enjoyed researching its past.

"At first we couldn't get anywhere but by looking in an old Featherstone Chronicle magazine we found out quite a bit about Thomas Ryan.

"He was a councillor in the 1900s and helped people in hardship but we don't know if he was in the war because his relatives don't think he was.

"A lot of miners were conscripted into the war to build tunnels and we can only think that that is what he did.

"We found the relative of Rita Plimmer through records and in tracking them down I also found a relative of someone who sold a shop to my parents and a woman who had worked for me for 20 years.

"Both families have given permission for the Bible to be given to the archive section of the library."

The Bible is an Active Service Testament issued in 1917 with a message from Lord Frederick Roberts, the last commander-in-chief of the British Army before the post was abolished.

It has inscriptions from Rita Plimmer, of Gladstone Street, and Thomas Ryan, of Station Lane.

Peter Ecersley of Preston bought the book for 50 pence in a charity shop and his sister Elizabeth Hartley wrote the appeal to the Express.

Mr Ecersley,74, said: "When I saw the Bible's inscriptions from Thomas Ryan and Rita Plimmer I thought it should go back to their families where it belongs.

"My sister and the historians have put a lot of work into returning it to Featherstone and they deserve credit for that, the Bible has a lovely story.

"Thanks to the Express we have managed to give the book back to the town."