A MUSEUM dedicated to the soldiers who served in Oxfordshire’s own regiment was so overwhelmed with enquiries about those who fought in the First World War, it had to suspend its enquiry service.

The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum (SOFO), which opened its new premises in Park Street in Woodstock in September 2014, was inundated with more than 20 enquiries a week in the autumn.

Now the museum is to relaunch the service with a new team of volunteers and plans for a database to speed up the enquiry process.

Enquiries have come from families who wanted to know more about their relatives who fought – and in many cases died – in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in the 1914-18 conflict.

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When museum volunteer Jim Pearson, who had the task of trying to seek out information for the families concerned, decided to leave to take up a new job in Scotland, the remaining volunteers simply could not cope with demand and the enquiries service had to be shut down, losing the museum valuable income.

Museum director Ursula Corcoran said: “As we approached the centenary of the Great War, the interest in people researching their family histories grew and the number of enquiries rose significantly and were no longer manageable by one or two volunteers. It reached a pinnacle with the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London.”

Volunteer Michele Baston, 50, who will be helping to run the new service, said: “It’s really exciting because we will be able to go through all the archive material to help people with their enquiries and if we get a good story it might even be used in the actual museum galleries.”

The museum is the only place that houses the regimental chronicle and the war diary of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry.

It charged £30 for an enquiry but that amount will increase to £50 with the new service, which is expected to open in the next week.

The museum is run by the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust, which is a registered charity.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the museum can find out more at the website sofo.org.uk.