SCORCH marks on a poetry book are Mary Appleton's poignant reminder of the tragedy of war.

The marks were caused by the bullet which skimmed pages before plunging into the heart of a Bolton First World War soldier -- her uncle, Harry McLinden.

Harry was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1917 when he was just 21 and the book has been carefully preserved by his family ever since.

He had it in his breast pocket when he was shot and the pages are edged by burn marks from the bullet and blood stains from his fatal wound -- but most of the lines in the book can still be read.

Now his niece hopes her precious family heirloom will help others remember the soldiers who lost their lives in both world wars during Remembrance weekend.

music teacher Mary, aged 57, of Elgin Street, Smithills, says the bullet-marked book is a powerful illustration of the horrors of war and should make people work together to stop other wars starting.

She said: "I hope that people will realise what these people went through. They went through hell. They died to give us a better world.

"A lot of young people don't seem to realise the great sacrifice they made -- they had a life, too."

Harry came from a family of 14. Originally from Ireland, the family settled in Aintree, Liverpool, before moving to Moncrieffe Street in Bolton.

Harry's father became the assistant station master at Trinity Street Station and his mother, Agnes, came from a family of tea merchants.

Before he was called up, Harry became engaged to Daisy Morgan and went to Lord's Commercial College where he learned shorthand. He enjoyed music and taught the violin.

Harry became a private in the 17th battalion of the Manchester Regiment and was given the book of poems in the trenches on the Somme by a friend on March 14, 1917. The poems were by Christina Rossetti, a Victorian poet who was part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The inscription in the book is believed to have read "Consider not the given but the gift," although the bullet has made most of it illegible.

Just over a month later both Harry and his friend were dead -- both of them killed in action.

Harry was killed on April 23, 1917, and the poetry book was returned to his devastated family along with his other possessions.

Mary said: "My mother, who died in 1980, would have been about 13 when her brother died. She would often talk about him to me. She could remember going to the market in Farnworth with him."

The family do not know what happened to Harry's fiancee, Daisy, after he died.

Mary said she may eventually put the book into a war museum so the story can live on.