THE story of a Culcheth war hero has been highlighted in a work of historical fiction to be published at the end of the month.

The book by author Sean Lewis is called They Have No Graves Yet and features John Bridge, who few know was the most decorated man in the former British empire.

They Have No Graves is Sean’s fifth book and will be published on Friday.

It tells the story of Bridge’s ‘cold courage’ in the Second World War for which he became the first person ever to win both the George Cross and a bar for his George Medal.

John Bridge, who was born in Culcheth and was educated at Leigh Grammar School, was a physics teacher when the war broke out.

He was said to be mild-mannered, modest, and a pacifist by nature.

In 1939, Hitler launched a lethal type of mine that was detonated by an approaching ship’s magnetic signature rather than contact and dropped them on cities.

Bridge was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and defused dozens of mines and bombs in the UK and abroad.

They Have No Graves explores how Britain could have lost the war within six weeks, had the bombs not been countered.

It includes a foreword by Rear Admiral Paddy McAlpine, the Royal Navy’s most senior mine clearance officer.

The book will also tell the stories of the courage of other members of the Royal Navy’s Rendering Mines Safe units.

Sean said: “All I had to do was to document faithfully the true stories of these incredibly brave men and present them in a fictionalised setting.

“I hope my new book will lead to many more people learning about these forgotten heroes.”

Sean, 61, spent twenty years in the navy until he retired three years ago to focus on his writing career.