A WRITER who penned a play about an East Lancashire military regiment has died.

Peter Whelan, who wrote First World War drama Accrington Pals, died aged 82 of a brain haemorrhage.

The play is based around the story of the Accrington Pals army unit during the war, contrasting the experiences of the soldiers on the front line with the lives of the women they left behind.

The performance demonstrates the coping mechanisms people used to deal with the stresses of relationships, love and life, with a cast of five male and five female roles.

Peter is survived by his wife, three children and three grandchildren.

His widow Ffrangcon Whelan, 80, said the story was very important to him.

She said: “It was a play he felt very strongly about. His father was wounded in the Battle of the Somme. As a little boy he can remember taking bits of shrapnel out of his father’s bath while his father was in the bath.”