TRAGIC pensioner Edgaris Baumanis is to return to the homeland he loved.

But the trip will not be how he wished it.

After fifty-five years in exile his ashes are to be returned to his cherished Latvia.

Mr Baumanis was forced to flee his country during the war to escape certain death.

And there he will be reunited in death with Elvira, the wife he last saw 54 years ago when she was pregnant with his only son.

Despite his half-century in Leigh it had always been his ambition to return home one day.

But the 86-year-old's dream ended last month when his body was discovered in the cellar of his Lord Street home.

Three men were later charged with his murder. Mr Baumaris, who never gave up his citizenship, was cremated at Howe Bridge on Friday in a touching ceremony performed by a Latvian priest from Leeds.

His only son Girts was at the service with his wife, teacher Irina, and daughter, Ilona (pictured).

They are this week staying in Leigh at a friend of Mr Baumanis' home while they sort out his personal affairs.

The father and son were reunited for the first time when Gorbachev brought down the Iron Curtain; sadly, Mr Baumanis' wife had already died.

Girts told the harrowing and sorrowful life of his father, who had been a science teacher and came from a relatively wealthy middle class family.

He saw his parents taken to a Siberian Labour Camp as punishment for their privileged status and was forced to flee.

He left his wife behind, and found his way out by joining the German army.

By 1947 he had arrived in Leigh as a displaced person where he became well known as a keen cyclist and pigeon feeder.

Despite being an academic he took up unskilled work in local mills to make his living.

He sent parcels to Latvia and helped to support his son, who he met for the first time in 1986.

In recent years he also collected bikes to send to his homeland.

Girts, also a scientist, said: "It is so sad we only had a few years to really get to know each other. His death came as a terrible shock. He was such a fit man for his years.

"What a terrible end to such a hard life."

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