He loved the people, the customs, the history, the scenery and the way we brewed up.

So long after he returned to his American homeland, the former soldier, who had been stationed at Mobberley during the Second World War, still took his tea with milk.

"He just developed a taste for it," said Laura Biggerstaff. "But everyone back home thought it was strange. I did too until I moved here and started drinking it that way too."

Her father also never forgot the two teenage sisters he had befriended during his eight-month posting.

He was music mad and they provided a willing, appreciative audience.

He died aged 71 five years ago, happy in the knowledge that his daughter Laura was leaving America to live in Britain.

"I'm so glad that Daddy lived long enough to know that I was moving to England," she said.

"This country was his favourite in the world,"

But he had one last wish. He wanted Laura to track down Margaret and Kathleen Wright - the two girls from Mobberley.

"He had always talked about the sisters so I really want to get in touch like he asked me to," she said.

The former Army officer knew both girls had married because he had kept in touch over the years and the three had been reunited in 1989.

Within weeks of her dad's death, Laura was living in England.

Since then she has been trying to trace the two sisters - and fulfil her dad's dying wish.

"He has told me so many stories about his time in England but I was too young to remember most of them," said Laura, now 39, who now lives in High Legh.

She had hoped to meet Margaret two years ago, but was ill and unable to meet her.

"I never called back and now I've lost her number," she said.

Her father - nicknamed Butch - was a regular visitor at Margaret and Kathleen's home in Church Lane, Mobberley, during his time in the village.

Last year Laura and her eldest brother Ben visited some of their father's old haunts.

"We went for a pint in the Roebuck where he used to drink," she said. "It was such an eerie feeling to be standing where Daddy stood about 50 years ago."

Her father, a Second Lieutenant, fought on the front line in Europe before being taken ill with frostbite.

While recovering in an English hospital his wonderful musical talents emerged and he made musical officer for American forces in Britain.

"He would play any instrument he could get his hands on while he was in hospital to entertain the other patients and staff," said Laura.

It seems the 20-year-old soldier also entertained Margaret and Kathleen.

When he returned to South Carolina he became band director of a high school - a post he held for 40 years.

Every year on the anniversary of Ben's death and Father's Day, Laura and her own three children recall their favourite stories.

"We talk about him and they ask me questions about what he was like," she said. "He is still a major part of all our lives and my eldest son, Thomas, is a great musician like he was.

"I think it would be wonderful for them to meet the sisters who meant so much to their grandad because they love to here stories about him too."

If you know Margaret Banner or Kathleen Smith please call the Knutsford Guardian on 01565 751114.