ANOTHER piece in the jigsaw of the life of Dorchester's Charge of the Light Brigade hero Thomas Warr slots into place on Friday with a ceremony at the grave of the trooper's wife Amelia.

Paul Gawler of Woods funeral directors, who helped arrange a memorial service to commemorate the life of the Crimean War veteran, said Amelia Warr had been buried in a pauper's grave when she died in 1886 aged 55.

He said: "We knew that Tom Warr had married after he came back from the Crimea but we didn't know much more about his wife or where she was buried.

"Tom ended up in the workhouse and later got a bit of a pension and lived in Dagmar Road. When he died in 1916 he was buried at St George's in Fordington - again in a pauper's grave - but not with his wife.

"I went through the records book at the Weymouth Avenue cemetery - and there in copperplate handwriting I found it. It was a grave I'd walked past many times and not realised."

Paul and Portland mason John Broddle have created a memorial tablet that is being placed to mark the grave with a ceremony conducted by the Rev Dru Dennis. She will bless the tablet as one of her last duties before moving from Dorchester to the Isle of Wight.

The tablet is off-white nabresina stone, harder than Portland stone.

Paul, who has worked with fellow researchers Jenny Dando and Peter Metcalfe to find out more about Trooper Warr and his wife, said: "We wish we had known him. He seemed such a gentleman.

"I feel very privileged to have done something like this. I suppose I'm a romantic at heart."

He said there are no photographs of Amelia Warr but she is known to have come from Shroton and had a daughter by a previous marriage. The couple were middle-aged when they married and had just five years together before Amelia died.

Paul said: "Being able to mark Amelia's grave is like putting another piece in place in their story."