Villagers in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire were told how a postcard sent to a World War I soldier being treated in hospital nearly a century ago was found by workmen fixing a village hall floor.

They said the card had been hidden behind wooden wall panels at the 100-year-old hall, which was used as a military hospital during the Great War.

It appears to have been written by a woman named Nellie to “Drum. E C Wolstencroft” of the 3rd Royal Fusiliers at the “Auxiliary Hospital near Royston, Herts” and sent in April 1915.

Locals say searches of military records show that Private (Drummer) Edward Coulton Wolstencroft, of the Royal Fusiliers, came from Edmonton, Middlesex, and died on July 7, 1916 – probably during the Battle of the Somme – when he was in his mid-20s.

Records show that he is remembered on the war memorial dedicated to missing World War I soldiers at Thiepval in the Picardie region of France.

The name “Drummer Wolstencroft” can also be found on a village list of soldiers treated at the hospital in Shepreth, which is near Royston.

Locals say a photograph of soldiers and nurses at the hospital exists – but it is not known whether Private Wolstencroft is among the patients pictured.

Villagers have left “virtual flowers” for Private Wolstencroft on a Thiepval Memorial internet website.

They hope to trace relatives of the soldier and are urging anyone with information about him or “Nellie” to get in touch.

Dianne Sinnatamby, who runs a nursery school in the hall and is also a member of the hall ­management committee, said the card was found on Sunday.

“The wood panelling has a little shelf on top and I suspect he stood the card on there and it slipped down the back,” she said.

“It’s amazing to think that it’s been lying there for 95 years and nobody realised.

“I plan to show it to the children and to talk to them a little bit about the war and the soldiers who were here. It really is living history.”

Village hall booking clerk Louise Barrell added: “It’s fascinating to wonder who Edward Wolstencroft was and what happened to him. When did he arrive in Shepreth? How did he come to be here? When did he return to the fighting?

“And so sad to think that a little over a year after receiving this card he would die in one of the most horrific battles there’s ever been.

“And who was ‘Nellie’? Was she a sweetheart? A girl he’d met on leave? What happened to her?

“We’d love to find out the answers to some of these ­questions – and hopefully we will.”

Commonwealth War Graves Commission records show that Private Wolstencroft – Service Number L/13456 – was 26 and serving with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers when he died a week after British troops launched their ill-fated Somme attack against German lines.

Census records show that Private Wolstencroft was the second of 12 children.

Records also show that he was the son of Edward Coulton ­Wolstencroft and Annie ­Wolstencroft, of 40 Gordon Road, Lower Edmonton, Middlesex.

Mr Wolstencroft was a seaman born in Hulme, Manchester, in 1868, who married Annie Copper, born in Hoxton, Middlesex, in 1872, at Bethnal Green, east London, in 1888.

The postcard, which is marked “printed in Germany”, shows a picture of a man, who appears to be a sailor, flanked by two women.

Nellie writes: “Dear Teddy, Don’t think I have forgotten your letter following hoping you are quite alright love from Nellie.”