A DARWEN pensioner who spent four decades trying to uncover a life-long mystery found the answers in Blackburn Market.

Retired groundsman Joe Sutton, from Leven Grove in Darwen, had tried for 40 years to find the grave of his uncle, who was killed during the Second World War.

But it was during a weekly shopping trip to Blackburn that he noticed the council's Lifelong Learning Stand in Market Avenue and decided to make some enquiries.

Staff used the internet to link up with the War Graves Commission and, within minutes, 70-year-old Joe was presented with a down-loaded copy of the Record of Commemoration, and details of his uncle Joseph Grinsell's grave in Burma.

Joe, who was named after his favourite uncle, last saw him in Coventry in 1940 when he was ten years old.

He said: "When I used to visit him in Coventry and he was the life and soul of the party. He was only person I looked up to.

"I knew he was taken prisoner quite early during the war and I found out later that he died. The family moved and I couldn't find him. I wrote to the British forces and the British Legion but they couldn't trace him. I think they spelt his name wrong. "

Mr Grinsell, who was a gunner with the Warwickshire Royal Artillery was killed when he was 30 years old.

Although Joe won't be travelling to Burma, he will go to his uncle's home town of Coventry where he plans to plant a tree in his honour in the town's memorial park.

Following his brush with new technology, Joe is now keen to delve deeper into the World Wide Web.

He said: "It's fascinating. I'm going back to the library to see if I can go into it in more detail. I'd like to find out if he won any medals."