A writer whose uncle served in the First World War has been sharing his wartime diary on Twitter.

Anthony Quiney, a historian from Blackheath, has been tweeting accounts penned by his uncle Bernard O’Brien, who lived in Brixton and volunteered with the Royal Engineers in 1915.

The diary charts Mr O’Brien’s journey as a repairman on the London Underground network to a sapper fighting for the British army in France.

His tales from the Western front appear in four chapters of Mr Quiney’s book ‘The Undone Years’, which also features testimonies from other members of the historian’s family.

My Quiney, who hopes to get the book published soon, was persuaded by his daughter to circulate excerpts of the diary on Twitter. He said: “Having spent my life as a historian and studying all these academics things, I thought it would be something to do.

"My children felt their children should know what happened all those years ago. I did not realise I had this huge archive about the Great War until they asked me.

"But I found a suitcase of material that my mother had and I could not pass it by. I was absolutely fascinated by it.”

When Mr O’Brien left England for the war in April 1915, he waved goodbye to his fiancée Flossie, who was extremely nervous about him going into battle.

The brave sapper was badly wounded at Ypres in 1918, but quickly recovered and returned to Flanders in time for the German retreat. Soon afterwards, he narrowly avoided being hit again in a heavy shelling incident.

Mr Quiney said: “Practically everyone was injured. He was very lucky to get out alive, but he got back to England safely.”

His diary entries finish in April 1920, when he returned to London and found a job as an electrical engineer. He died in 1972 aged 80.

Mr Quiney said he has fond memories of his uncle as “a very quiet, easy-going and modest man”.

“He made me a train set when I was nine using his electrical skills. I still visit his children, my cousins, to this day. They are overjoyed [by the book]. It never occurred to them this was something that could be done”, he said.

Follow the diary on Twitter @SapperOBrien or visit www.theundoneyears.com.