Medals awarded to a Huddersfield soldier killed in the First World War have been reunited with the family.

Second Lt Geoffrey Herbert Woodcock, of Fartown , died aged 25, on April, 6, 1918, serving with the Royal Welch Fusliers on the Somme during an assault on enemy machine guns.

While a number of documents – including copies of letters send by Second Lt Woodcock to his parents, sister and fiancée – remained in the family’s possession his medals, consisting of the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, had gone astray.

Now a medal collector who bought the set in 1994 from a shop near Portsmouth has reunited them with the family.

The three medals - known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred - which were presented to Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Herbert Woodcock

Lars Ahlkvist, who lives in Sweden and is moderator for the online British Medals Forum and the Royal Welch Forum, said: “As the interest for me as a medal collector is not only the medals themselves but also the man behind the medals, I have regularly tried to seek information on the life of Geoffrey Herbert Woodcock.

“Recently, the family saw a post I had made on an internet forum and replied there. I realised very soon that the family has a very high regard for their ancestor and we quickly agreed on a return.”

The medals are now in the possession of the Arundel family. David Arundel, of Ealing, London, is related to Second Lt Woodcock twice over. His niece, Rosamond, was married to David’s uncle and Second Lt Woodcock was also a first cousin of David’s grandfather, Edgar Arundel.

Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Herbert Woodcock, pictured in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner in 1918

Second Lt Woodcock was born on October 31, 1892, the son of Herbert and Gertrude Woodcock (nee Arundel), of Lynwood, 8 Richmond Avenue, Fartown. He attended Fartown Grammar School and worked as a clerk with merchants Messrs Fishers and Company, of Upperhead Row.

He enlisted in the local Territorial battalion on September 3, 1914, and sailed for France in April 1915 as a private in the 1/5th Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. He was recommended for a commission and trained at Gailes, Ayrshire, before joining the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1917 as Second Lieutenant. He returned to France in January, 1918, and was killed in action in April, He is buried at the Martinsart British cemetery and his name appears on the Fartown and Birkby war memorial.

After the War, Second Lt Woodcock’s grieving mother transcribed all of her son’s 1918 letters – the originals of which do not survive – into an exercise book. They included ones sent to Roz or Rozzie who was his 23-year-old sister Rosamond and to Win who was a Miss Phillips, his fiancée. She also copied letters written to the family by Second Lt Woodcock’s commanding officer and comrades following his death.

The grave of Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Herbert Woodcock

Lars revealed: “The attack in which he was killed is an iconic World War One I/4th Royal Welsh Fusiliers action – two companies attacking German machine gun positions at Aveluy Wood on the Somme almost without any artillery support.”

A letter to Second Lt Woodcock’s family from company sergeant major G Owens stated: “I lost five officers that morning and the remaining officer was badly gassed and they were all gentlemen in the true sense of the word. The Coy (company) thought the world of them and followed them to the end which is the highest tribute to their leadership.

“I can assure you that you have my deepest sympathy in your great loss and trouble, for your son was one of the best.”

Lars added: “Reading the letters from Geoffrey gave me quite an insight in the lives of officers and men in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the German March offensive 100 years ago. Going up against German machine guns over an open field towards a forest line without adequate artillery support and being a pioneer battalion – working duties, not a line battalion.

The reverse of the 1914 Star bearing the name of Pte Geoffrey Herbert Woodcock, who was later commissioned as a second lieutenant

“I am a serving soldier in the Swedish Territorial Army and I shudder at the thought. His company sergeant major writing to the family in 1919 is very poignant in his words.”

Second Lt Woodcock’s death was reported in The Examiner at the time and in a memoriam article in the Huddersfield branch YMCA Review of June, 1919, which was also preserved with his papers.

It said: “Brigadier-General Gorringe speaks of him as ‘a capable and courageous officer’, and his commanding officer says that on the morning that he was killed he set the finest possible example to his platoon in the face of terrible odds. His death must have been a great trial to his parents but ,the fact that he earned such an epitaph must fill them with pride and, in some measure, provide a consolation in their loss.”

The edition of the review was the first since March 1918 and the editor noted that of 245 of branch members who joined up “39 have made the supreme sacrifice.”