WAR veteran's will be gathering in Redditch on Remembrance Sunday to mark Armistice Day and pay homage to their fallen comrades.

And this year there will be added interest as St Stephen's Church hosts a special exhibition entitled Redditch at War.

Organisers Alan Foxall and Phillip Coventry, of Redditch Pictorial History Society, together with amateur historian Philip Jarvis, have pooled their extensive collections of old pictures and memorabilia to produce the displays, which will be in the church on Saturday.

Visitors will find an array of old postcards and photographs of townsfolk from both world wars, together with contemporary posters and newspaper cuttings from the Redditch Indicator.

Mr Foxall said: "There will be a lot of stuff there commemorating the town's involvement in both world wars and we're hoping for a big turnout.

"Of course, people in the Royal British Legion will find plenty of interest in the displays but we're also hoping to attract some younger people so they can get a flavour of how things were."

Mr Foxall said there would also be detailed displays on "Tank Week" in Redditch, which raised funds to build the £5,000 machines during the First World War and of which many pictures exist, as well as photographs stretching back to the Worcester Yeomanry, which formed in the 1700s.

Like many, co-organiser Philip Jarvis has a personal interest in the history of the Great War, in which his uncle and namesake lost his life.

The signaller from Archer Road was attached to the Royal Artillery when he was killed in action by a shell at Ypres, Belgium, on October 27, 1917.

Amazingly, his nephew still has the very postcard of Archer Road that his uncle had on him when he died, complete with shrapnel damage to its upper left corner.

Just days before his tragic death, signaller Jarvis had written a letter for publication in the Indicator telling of life in the trenches and his fondness for catching up on news from "dear old Redditch". The letter is reprinted today.

Before the war, Jarvis had been a clerk at Millwards Fishing Tackle and a lay preacher at Bates Hill Methodist Church.

His nephew said: "I don't know too much about him as he was so young when he died.

"But I was told that he was a kind and generous man who loved his mother, my grandmother, Emily, very much. His obituary was also printed in the Redditch Indicator."

l Redditch at War runs from 10am-4pm and admission is free although donations to the church will be welcomed.