THE young lad gazing steadfastly from the photograph – proudly decked out in his soldier's uniform – is a Tommy in the 1st West Yorkshire Regiment.

He is resting his hand tentatively on the back of a chair on which a woman is sitting – is she his wife or his sweetheart?

Veronica Wilson doesn't know but observes she is not wearing a wedding ring so assumes they are 'walking out' together.

It is 1914 or early 1915 and what we do know is that young Edgar Linn joined the army as an 18-year-old in the early months of the First World War, and the photograph is most likely taken in Skipton.

Both Edgar and Florence were members of the Salvation Army and were married in Doncaster, where his Linn relatives lived and worked as coal miners.

Veronica, who lives in Brougham Street, Skipton, is the 79-year-old daughter of Edgar and, being a late child in the family, was just 18 when he died, aged 58.

Much of her father's early life remains a mystery to her, but what she does know, and is extremely proud of, is that Edgar won a gallantry medal and a citation from Brigadier General S G Cranford, commander of the 187th Infantry Brigade, for his skill with the Lewis machine gun.

She has his Military Medal and a framed citation, which reads: "That on September 17-19, 1918, in skilfully manipulating your Lewis gun, it has been reported to me, and I have much pleasure in reading, the record of you gallantry."

Edgar, who served as a Lance Gunner between June 1917 and December 1918, was twice wounded and reported missing, and returned home with a piece of shrapnel in his ear.

Veronica said: "He used to joke about it and point to it and say 'that is what I did in the war'.

"Being young when he died, I really didn't have much time to question him about his service.

"If ever he took me away to London, he would go to Westminster Abbey to the grave of the unknown soldier to remember his younger brother, Walter, and all the mates he lost."

But his demob after the First World War was not the last time he would serve his country. He was called up as a reserve and joined the British Expeditionary Force in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War.

And, remarkably, Veronica has a record of her dad's "voice" from the past in a newspaper cutting from the now defunct Daily Dispatch. Edgar was interviewed in June 1940 and his words quoted in the paper.

He said: "I was troubled to see children helping their parents to push all kinds of vehicles. The Jerries were also trying to bomb them. Our Air Force give them hell when they meet them."