THE daughter of a war hero has returned to Widnes after receiving an invitation to see a headstone constructed in memory of her father, who died in one of the most famous Norwegian battles of the Second World War.

Ann Jones, of Kilsby Drive, said the whereabouts of the remains of her father, Lance Sergeant Harold Thomas Povey, remain unknown.

But her visit to a military cemetery in Trondheim, at the invitation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was also an opportunity to do some further fact-finding for her research into her father's past.

After arriving on July 24 in the Norwegian town of Stravanger, she met retired RAF officer Peter Jevons, who gave her a tour of the area.

The following day, she took a train journey from Oslo to Trondheim, where she was met by a member of the British Embassy.

Next day, Ann met honorary consul Berit Kjeldsberg, who escorted her to Stavne Cemetery and showed her the gleaming white marble stone bearing her father's name.

Ann was also keen to see a further five unmarked graves of soldiers whose bodies were transported from the battlefields of Maloy Island to the Trondheim cemetery.

She believes one of them contains her father's body but a request to have DNA samples taken from them has been refused because of the risk of contamination.

She laid a wreath of poppies at his headstone and left Commando crosses at ten other graves of soldiers who also died at the battle where her father was killed.

Ann has spent four years researching her father's past after discovering he was a founding member of the Commandos and was killed in action rescuing civilians from the island of Maloy.

He died during fighting with the crack German 3 Pelatong Regiment but the exact circumstances of his death are unknown.

Ann was last year invited by the Maloy islanders to celebrations marking the battle.

Ann said: 'I'm glad I went because now I feel that I finally have some peace of mind. I have been to the cemetery and seen the grave and it was well worth the journey.

'The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has paid to have the headstone put up and it was nice to see how well the graves are looked after.

'I now have various theories as to what happened to my father and I am now trying to figure out how to get the information.'