In June 1940, as Hitler's armies conquered Europe and with German occupation of the Channel Islands looming, 23,000 children, mothers and teachers were evacuated from Guernsey and Jersey for safety in northern English towns and cities.

Out of these thousands some 500 evacuees came to reside in Bury.

The Bury Times of June 26 1940 reported: "They came at noon on Saturday, not a collection of sodden eyed evacuees who have had to leave their homes because of the dangers that have threatened them as a result of Germany's occupation of a great part of Northern France, but smiling folk who found time even in the face of the greatest inconvenience they have ever experienced, to be happy."

Nazi invasion of the islands came days after their arrival, cutting evacuees off from their families, and ensuring that they would remain in Bury for almost five years, until the islands were liberated in May 1945.

But in the midst of the horrors of the Second World War Bury rallied showing great kindness and every year one resident brought Christmas cheer to the evacuees.

Bury residents donated numerous household items and furniture, slippers and sandals; while 60 free mattresses were made for some children by Bury Felt Manufacturing Company, and the Scala Hippodrome and Odeon Cinemas offered the children free entry on Saturdays.

However, one Bury man, 72-year-old retired commercial traveller John W Fletcher, went above and beyond to become Father Christmas to the evacuees.

In December 1940 Mr Fletcher arranged a Christmas party, with help from friends and contacts around the globe and, dressed as Father Christmas, presented 200 of the children with gifts.

In a letter written in 1940 Mr Fletcher described his motivation, saying: "I wondered, what could I do for the coming Christmas to help to brighten and cheer these children's lives on their first Christmas in a strange land?

"I sat down at my desk and got busy."

Mr Fletcher's seasonal philanthropy became a tradition, growing year-on-year, as he collected donations from friends and colleagues to purchase at least 300 gift parcels every December - even raising enough money in 1943 to buy presents for evacuee children in both Tottington and Bury.

In the 1944, the war's last Christmas, as he was handing out 300 hundred savings certificates to the children, Mr Fletcher received a surprise gift himself - a book Lancashire Idylls containing some of the children's signatures and a poem specially written for him by Guernsey Evacuee Irene Guille.

Mr Fletcher would host one more farewell party in July 1945 and after the war he went to visit the former evacuees in Guernsey on Liberation Day every other year where he was given a hero's welcome until his death in 1953.

The story of the Mr Fletcher and Bury evacuees has been lovingly uncovered by Stockport-born historian Gillian Mawson, whose latest book Britain's Wartime Evacuees contains evacuee stories from across the UK, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.

Speaking of her research about Second World War Evacuees to Bury Ms Mawson said: "I was particularly delighted to read through the Channel Island Evacuee archives at Bury Local Studies where I discovered documents that recorded the kindness of the local community towards Guernsey's evacuees.

"The story of John Fletcher really gladdened my heart and I was lucky enough to meet John's grandson, Ron, a number of times before he passed away.

"I would love to have a blue plaque placed outside John's house, which still exists in Bury today."