A retired teacher turned author who has written a book about Hucknall soldiers who served in the First World War, is holding its launch event in the town in April.

Andy McKinnon, who lives in Arnold, has written 'Hucknall's Heroes' which has been published by Hucknall Heritage Society and aided by a grant from the Nottinghamshire Local History Association.

He will be present at and deliver a short talk at the launch event which will be held at East Side Methodist Church on Bestwood Road in Hucknall.

Mr McKinnon who was a Geography teacher has always had a huge interest in The Great War.

This was partly because his grandfather, Frank Evans, served for the final two years of the conflict, and when he died in 1985, Mr McKinnon was left with a feeling of regret of all the questions he should have asked him about his experiences but never did.

His passion was further ignited ten years ago, in 2012, when he volunteered for the Trent to trenches project, a county wide programme of commemorative activities to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War in 2014.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, he said: "As well as leading the school team in the county, which obviously was right up my street being a recently retired teacher, I also became a member of the team that put together the role of honour.

"And one of the places I was given was Ollerton which is where I was born and where my mum still lived. The church warden took me in the church in Ollerton village and I saw a plaque on the wall and it had got the names of all the soldiers from the village who'd gone to war not just the ones that were killed. I thought I've never seen that before. Normally, all the books and memorials, of course, are (about) the soldiers that were killed. I don't have a problem with that, we must never forget those men but I thought well what about the men that came back? Surely they deserve a bit of respect as well.

"And so I thought I wonder if Arnold's got a document like that, I couldn't find one so I thought right let's create one. I didn't realise at that point what a colossal task I was taking on. I started with the war memorial and then luckily they started to put service records on Ancestry and so on and somebody pointed me to the absent voters list which was compiled in 1918 when there's an election so all the soldiers in the trenches could vote."

This research project led to the creation and publication of Mr McKinnon's first book, Arnold's Mighty Army which was released in October 2018 just before the Armistice centenary.

The enjoyment of the first project led to Mr McKinnon seeking another town to research and he settled on Hucknall.

"I thought of Hucknall, just up the road and I knew there was link because a lot of the Arnold men actually enlisted in Hucknall because that's where the recruitment office was, Arnold didn't have one until about 1917.

"I went to the Hucknall memorial and started researching and making lists, Maureen (Newton) of the Heritage Society gave me the absent voters list. I spent a whole year at Hucknall Library, maybe a couple of sessions a week, looking at that and making notes and things. The result is the book which is printed but obviously not launched until April."

The book has details of 2616 soldiers from Hucknall, whose records Mr McKinnon has managed to track down and gives some biographical details of each one as well as some of their military service history.

Asked for his most memorable Hucknall story, he said: "The one that really stands out is William Henry Randall. He was the eldest of five children, he was born in Hucknall. He was a miner and he volunteered at the outbreak of war, served at Gallipoli, which was a bloodbath, survived that. He went over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, survived that, even though 140 men were lost from his battalion which was the tenth battalion Sherwood Foresters, that's 140 men out of about 700.

"Then he heard that his brother John was serving nearby, he thought I'll go and have a word with him, but of course he forgot to tell anybody or ask anybody, he didn't get permission and he was caught where he shouldn't have been by an Officer I believe, arrested, and they locked him up and they tried him. They had nobody to defend him, and he was executed on 25 November 1916.

"I remember when I discovered that, it really hit me, that did. It can be quite emotional, you never know what you're going to find; I'm quite proud of it."

The book launch at East side is free of charge and open to anyone, it isn't exclusively for Hucknall Heritage Society members, and will take place on Saturday 9 April from 11am until 3pm.

There will be an opportunity to buy a copy of the book which costs £15.