A SOLDIER who made a promise to find his great-grandfather's grave in Iraq is hoping to call home soon with the news his family has been waiting for.

Private Nicholas Wilson, 19, of Fulwood, Preston, is one of dozens of soldiers helping to clean up the Commonwealth War Cemetery in war-torn Iraq.

It was a job the former Corpus Christi High School pupil volunteered for while serving in Basra with the 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR).

Now he is on a personal mission to find the final resting place of his paternal great-grandfather, Christopher Topping, who was killed in action in the region during the First World War, aged 24.

Pte Wilson, who has served with QLR for two years, said: "My great-grandfather is buried in either Basra or Nasiriyah. It is thought he was killed near Basra.

"I promised my dad I would look for his grave."

Pte Wilson's great-grandfather was killed in February 1917 while serving in Mesopotamia, as the Gulf was then known, with the 6th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment.

The fallen soldier never even got to meet his daughter Winnifred, Pte Wilson's grandmother, who was born eight months after he was killed.

His body was buried in a war cemetery along with the remains of 40,500 other soldiers from Commonwealth forces who died during conflicts between 1914 to 1921.

The war cemetery was desecrated under the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime and hundreds of headstones and monuments were destroyed by gun fire in the country's conflicts.

Now mainly British troops are removing the headstones and monuments for cleaning and future restoration in honour of their fallen comrades.

"We managed to collect all the grave stones for safe keeping," said said Pte Wilson, but he still does not know whether his great-grandfather's is among them.

"The regiment is now checking up to see if they can find my great-grandfather's grave and I hope to visit it before I leave Iraq," he said.

Peter Francis, spokesman for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said: "We are extremely grateful to the coalition forces for helping us."

And he added: "We wish to reassure the public that as soon as circumstances permit, it will do everything in its power to restore the graves to a fitting standard."

Pte Wilson is stationed in Basra as part of the Ministry of Defence's security and peace keeping forces.

"I joined the army as I come from a family who have served in the forces and I love it," said Pte Wilson, whose partner Julie Rimmer, 29, is expecting the couple's first child.

"I do miss my family and my girlfriend. The worst thing about being here is at night when you really notice the smell. Basra still has open sewers and it smells like nothing else on earth."

His father Michael, who works at the Royal Mail depot in Pittman Way, said: "I'm really proud of Nicholas.

"My mother never got see her father, so it is important to me that Nicholas does this for the family.

"We have been researching it for a long time with the help of Fulwood Barracks. I think my grandfather lived in Great Tram Street and Townley Old Road before he went overseas."