I'VE had an enquiry about Lance Corporal John Vincent McDonald who died during the Second World War.

The Echo gets loads of such requests and we try to include them in the infrequent Tracer column - a column we really should do more with on the web. I'm putting L-Cpl McDonald here because he must have a fascinating story attached to him, poor fellow.

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, he was the son of Albert and Jenny McDonald, and he was the wife of Constance Sarah McDonald with whom he lived at Ravensdale Road, Darlington.

He is listed as a "sub-editor", which would probably mean he worked for one of the Echo's stable of papers: The Northern Echo, the now defunct Evening Despatch, and the weekly Darlington and Stockton Times. There were no other papers in town at that time, I think - The North Star disappeared around 1929, if memory serves.

Meg Parkes has been in touch about him. She is a mature student at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where she is researching the history of Far East Prisoners of War.

L-Cpl McDonald was serving with the Royal Corps of Signals when he was taken prisoner by the Japanese in Java in March 1942.

He died on November 19, 1942 on board the ship that was transporting him to Japan and he was buried at sea.

He was only 29 years old.

He is commemorated on the Singapore War Memorial in Kranji War Cemetery.

If anyone has any information about him, I'd love to hear it.