A little book found among a carrier bag of items donated to the Shepton Mallet Community Bookshop has been donated to the Royal Air Force Museum in London for preservation.

It is an RAF-issue Gospel of St John, published by the Naval and Military Bible Society. These were given to service personnel during the Second World War.

The Naval and Military Bible Society was founded in 1779 and is still in operation today, providing service personnel with St John's Gospel among other Christian literature.

What made this one particularly interesting was that it contained the name of the owner, the name and address of, presumably, his next of kin and a list of where he was stationed from 1941 until 1943.

The book was found by shop volunteer, Richard Burley, a retired professional archivist. He suggested to the manager Sheena Brook that it would be good to offer it to the Royal Air Force Museum in London.

The archive team there agreed with Richard that the personal details in the little book made it worthy of preservation for researchers both now and in the future, and so they agreed to accept it as a donation from the Shepton Mallet Charity Bookshop CIC.

The owner of the book was A Ross, possibly A J Ross, from 62 Commerce Street, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Acting as his next of kin may have been Mr A Lamont Jnr of 79 Urquhart Road, Aberdeen.

The book also contains the address Tylers Shoe Shop, Schoolhill. There is still a Schoolhill in Aberdeen.

There is a list of where A Ross was stationed from 1941, when presumably he joined the RAF, until he was stationed at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, in October 1943.

Melton Mowbray was operated by RAF Transport Command during the Second World War and during the time that A Ross was stationed there.

It was home to Nos. 306 and 307 Ferry Training Unit. Ferry training units trained aircrew to transport aircraft overseas to the units that needed them.

Sheena and Richard put questions on the Facebook pages of the Shepton Mallet Royal British Legion and Shepton Mallet Down Memory Lane, and discovered that A J Ross, called Jock, worked at Showerings in Shepton, and it is believed he had a son who joined the Merchant Navy, and possibly other children.

Mr A J Ross has passed away but people who knew him say he was "a lovely man" and "a lovely neighbour".