AN ATTEMPT is being launched to trace the family of a Troon war widow ahead of the unveiling of a new WW2 memorial.

Campaigners are planning to erect a statue to the men of No 4 Commando who lost their lives in training during the war.

One of those casualties is Lance Corporal James Keenan, one of two men who drowned near Brodick on July 8, 1942 while preparing for a raid on the French port city of Dieppe.

Though Lance Corporal Keenan came from Newtonards in Northern Ireland, the men of No 4 Commando were billeted in the area while training - and James had married a local girl in Troon just three months before his death.

James tied the knot with 21-year-old Jeanie Jess Barry at the Old Church in Troon on April 8 that year.

Jeanie never remarried, and died in Troon in 1995 aged 74 - and the group behind the memorial plans are now hoping to track down members of Jeanie's family.

They plan to erect a statue in Achnacarry in the Highlands next year - and are now trying to trace members of James and Jeanie's families, to invite them to the unveiling.

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Steve Nicoll, of the Scott Sutherland Project committee, a group which aims to commemorate the lives of commandos lost in training, told the Advertiser: "It's planned to dedicate the statue in the summer of 2024.

"It would be a wonderful occasion if the project committee could trace any surviving family relatives and invite them to attend the service.

"Their loss was never forgotten. Maybe some of the Advertiser's readers knew the Barry family and might even have a wedding photograph.

"It would also be also be terrific to hear from anyone in Troon who has any wartime memories of the time that No 4 Commando spent billeted in the town."

For more information, and to contact the committee, click here