The brother of a soldier killed in the Second World War is nearing the end of a mission to have his bravery recorded. He tells Neil Hunter of the battle to mark his grave.

THE legend on the headstone says simply: "A soldier of the 1939-1945 war. May, 1940." But it doesn't begin to tell the story of Private Thomas Rodgers, or the emotional quest his brother George has pursued since his death.

Next year, the inscription is to be altered to include Pte Rodgers' name, and only then will George rest, knowing a promise he made to his elderly father has been fulfilled.

Pte Rodgers, No 4453513, 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry, was just 21 when he was killed during a rearguard action leading up to the evacuation of Dunkirk.

His childhood best friend, Luke "Lukey" Wood, who followed Tom into the army in 1939, was wounded and captured. George traced him to his home on Humberside and he helped fill in many of the blanks which blighted George's research.

George, the youngest of 21 children of James Henry Rodgers, promised "the old man" he would find out where his brother was killed and where his final resting place was. Little did he know then how much of an ordeal it would be to fulfil that pledge, made after his father was unable to go to a ceremony in Dunkirk for all the unknown soldiers who lost their lives.

A memorial in the French town was being unveiled in the 1950s, containing the names of the 4,516 soldiers with no known grave. The Queen Mother was performing the ceremony, and the families of all the unknowns were invited.

George recalls: "Unfortunately, the cost of the journey, which included an overnight stay, was in the region of £50-plus. The sum might seem small today but in the 1950s it was quite considerable and, in our financial circumstances, completely out of the question. We were desperately poor.

'Dad was very bitter and got terribly upset. He cried out in frustration rather than genuine grief. It was then that he threw out not just Tom's medals, but also his own medals, into the garden.

"Unbeknown to him, I went out and retrieved as many as I could and hid them in his old tin box."

Both sets of medals - together with a Dunkirk Medal and diploma George applied for on behalf of Tom four years ago - are now proudly mounted and displayed on a wall at his home in Hartlepool.

"The memory of him breaking his heart and throwing the medals into the garden has stuck with me," George adds. "It was after this that I promised my father that, one day, I would go over to see his name on the Dunkirk Memorial and try to find the place where Tom was killed.

"Life continued to be a struggle for all of us and every time members of the family met, the subject of brother Tom always cropped up. The strange thing about it was that I was just ready to do some research into his death when I received a telephone call from sister Joyce telling me that her sons Alan, Trevor and Philip had already been over to France.

"Dad always thought the place was called St Valery until Alan sent me his illustrated account which told me the place was St Venant. This is when the real quest began in earnest."

The family has been able to solve most of the mystery surrounding Pte Rodgers' death, and George has now compiled it into a book called In Search of Tom, which he hopes to have published.

Tom was killed on May 27, 1940, just 16 months after he joined the Army following an accident at Wingate Colliery in County Durham, in which he lost part of his left thumb. The accident meant he was unable to keep up the family tradition of all the Rodgers boys following their father down the pit.

Lukey and Tom were both based at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle and each carried a photograph of them both in uniform. Lukey, now in his 80s, still treasures his and keeps it in his breast pocket.

The friends were both Bren gunners with the 2nd Battalion DLI, and were part of a brigade, also made up of soldiers from the Royal Welch Fusiliers and 3rd Battalion Royal Berkshires, which fought in northern France in 1940.

On May 15, the brigade had suffered horrendous losses in the Battle of the River Dyle but had to march 60 miles to St Venant, where 12 days later Tom would lose his life.

Lukey was wounded, captured and taken to hospital. He was held as a prisoner of war at Stalag VIII in eastern Germany before being freed by the Russians in 1944. But the war was far from over for him and he saw action from Catowitz, in Poland, to Prague and was at the relief of Auschwitz.

When he finally returned to England, he visited his best mate's father and explained what had happened. Mr Rodgers had received news his son had been killed in action, but kept it from his wife, who had been diagnosed with cancer and was terminally ill. Mrs Rodgers died in August not knowing Tom had been killed, simply thinking he had not been allowed leave to visit her on her death bed.

"We shall never know how dad managed to live for another 19 years following the death of his son and wife, having to cope with the loss and the guilt," says George. "It broke his unquestioning and utter faith in God."

All the heartache spurred George to get to the truth, but setback after setback followed as his quest got ever more frustrating. After finally locating the place where Tom was killed and speaking to fellow soldiers, French historians and St Venant locals, he was sure he had found the grave.

It was clear to George that the body originally buried in grave 154 by the French and later interred in 3b 21 at the St Venant cemetery after an exhumation by the British in 1948 was that of Tom. But burial records appeared to have been mixed up and George was unable to convince the Ministry of Defence and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that what he was saying was true.

By January last year, he had almost reached the end of the road. He received a letter from the MoD with "shattering" news. "According to their records," he says, "the body in grave 154 was not that of my brother, as it bore no resemblance to the description as given by the French.

"The British exhumed all the bodies in 1948 and did a physical examination, before re-interring them in the same graves.

"To complete my utter desolation at this unexpected setback, I was informed that no one fitting my brother's description was to be found in the cemetery.

"This was a complete body blow and one which I could not understand. I asked the question: 'Where is the body which fits my brother's description?' The answer was that they did not know, and, reading between the lines, it was up to me to find out."

And find out he did.

George had to prove the British records were wrong, and the French ones were correct.

Last July, George and his family travelled to St Venant with Lukey and met two French historians who gave them a tour of the area. They met a woman who, as a child, hid in the cellar of her farmhouse as the battle raged outside. Her father was forced to dig a mass grave for the six British casualties. Others they spoke to were able to identify Tom from photographs as one of the dead.

Finally, the missing pieces of the jigsaw were beginning to fall into place, and George visited the MoD to present his new case.

Officials have accepted that Tom is likely to have been buried in the cemetery and next May, on the 64th anniversary of his death, a new headstone bearing his name is to be unveiled.