WHEN the call up to go to war came in 1914, George Haffner had no hesitation in reporting for duty to serve King and Country.

He served with distinction in Gallipoli, France and Belgium and was wounded three times - returning to his battalion on each occasion. He was awarded both the Military Medal and the Belgium Croix de Guerre.

His story mirrors that of countless soldiers who served in the First World War, but George had one distinct difference - his father was German.

Now his fascinating story is being told in a new exhibition, which features his army uniform and possessions.

Although Mr Haffner senior, also George, became a British subject in 1896, he and his family became the targets of a wave of anti-German emotion which swept the country at the outbreak of the war.

It got so bad that even the King, George IV, had to change his surname from Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor.

The people of Burnley proved no exception to the national mood and by 1915 George senior, a long-serving Burnley town councillor, was forced to resign his seat.

Resentment continued, however, and culminated in children pelting the family's butcher's shop with stones.

To prove his devotion to his country George asked his sons, George, Billy and Harry, to serve in the shop wearing their army uniform.

Curator of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum, Jane Davies, said the show of loyalty marked a turning point for the town and the Haffner family.

She said: "The boys serving in the shop in full uniform was a display of support for the British war effort which shamed the people of Burnley and prevented the animosity turning into something more violent."

After the war, which all three brothers survived, George returned to Burnley and worked in the butcher's shop, still on Keirby Walk, which he helped protect.

The family also has a butcher's shop in the market called Haffner's and a bake house called Haffner's Bakery in Marlborough Street.

In 1918 George married Amy Wilkinson and moved to Cliviger. He died in 1981 at 92.

His son Raymond, 79, of Red Lees Road, took the uniform - and his dad's story - to the museum.

He said: "They were really excitied about it and said they would certainly display the uniform because they have a lot of First World War uniforms but not one with all this information about the man who wore it.

"I'm quite looking forward to seeing it on display."

Mrs Davies said: "George was rightly proud of his war service, taking part in many reunions and remembrance events.

"His proudly-preserved battlesdress tunic and cane and can now be seen as part of our World War 1 display."

The Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum, at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, is open throughout the year from 10am to 4pm, Tuesdays to Thursdays, or by appointment.

The museum houses one of the largest and most important regimental collections in the country, with displays and archives charting the history of the regiment from the later part of the 17th Century.