THE brother of a soldier killed in the Second World War has fulfilled a promise he made to their father - to find the squaddie's burial place.

Private Tom Rodgers is one of six "unknowns" buried in a cemetery in St Venant, in northern France, where the inscription on the headstone simply says: "A soldier of the 1939-1945 war, May 1940".

But after a four-year fight with the Ministry of Defence, his brother, George, has managed to convince them that Tom is likely to be one of the six.

The MoD has now indicated that a new headstone inscribed with Pte Rodgers' name should be in place for the anniversary of his death, next spring.

Mr Rodgers, 66, from Hartlepool, said: "We have achieved so much more than we ever hoped to."

Three of Mr Rodgers' nephews travelled to France in 1999 to see Pte Rodgers' name on the Dunkirk Memorial, and a year later members of the family went over for the 60th anniversary.

Mr Rodgers was convinced his brother had no known grave but there was a row of headstones of other Durham Light Infantry soldiers who were killed on the same day, May 20.

After speaking to eye witnesses to the battle, French historians and the local military society, Mr Rodgers was able to discover his brother was killed defending a bridge in a rearguard action that eventually led to the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Further detective work proved the body had been buried, and then exhumed and re-interred in the communal cemetery, but it seemed some remains and documentation had been mixed up and the authorities could not be sure of the identities.

Mr Rodgers' painstaking work has now persuaded them to erect a new headstone in the cemetery with the words: "Believed to be buried".

He said: "We will never, ever, be able to pinpoint exactly where he was buried, I accept that.

"After all this time, mistakes have been made.

"It has been very, very frustrating because all the information we got pointed to us getting nearer and nearer, but not quite there."

Mr Rodgers now hopes to publish his account of the battle and his search for his brother's resting place.