Four cousins from Carshalton, Esher, and Wimbledon have made the intrepid journey to the India- Myanmar border to find where their uncle died in the Battle of Imphal, 1944, when he was just 29 years old.

Next month will see the 75th anniversary of the D- Day landings on June 6th 1944.

But elsewhere at the same time another battle was taking place on another continent- the battle to prevent the invasion of India by the Japanese, the so called battle of Imphal and Kohima between March and July 1944.

During this battle, Dr Ciaran Gannon, a young and brave Irish doctor, died while he was tending to the injured during battle.

Last month four of his relatives set out on the incredible expedition to locate his place of death and celebrate his life.

A grave for him had never been found.

Leading the expedition was Ciaran Gannon, named after the doctor, from Esher.

“Locating where Ciaran died was incredibly emotional because we were paying respect to my uncle’s life,” Mr Gannon said.

“But it was made even more so, knowing how proud our parents would have been if they were still alive to see us complete this journey for their brother.”

But finding where the young doctor had been killed was not going to be straightforward.

He said: “The evidence we had to identify where Ciaran actually died was limited.

“We had to go on references found in literatures which referred to ‘barbed wire defences of Shark’ which we knew referred to a shark shaped hill in the region.

“There were also articles that included notes that the medical officer of the battalion (Dr Ciaran) was wounded and died soon after being evacuated.”

The group of four nephews and nieces set out to find Shark Hill, which meant travelling through a military sensitive zone on a highly patrolled border.

Amazingly, the first evening the group were in Moreh on the India- Burma border, they looked north and found a hill that looked like a shark’s fin.

Ciaran added: “Miraculously after being invited to a mass at the nearby Catholic Mission – a guide took us to the hill we had located and while we were there we wet the village Chief who announced that there were WWII trenches.

“At that point we knew we must have found the place where Ciaran received his mortal wounds 75 years ago.”

The cousins left a memorial cross to the 29 year old born in Oranmore in County Galway, an incredible 8,691km away, who died tending to wounded colleagues in the middle of battle.