Retired Melton lecturer makes emotional appearance on The Repair Shop

Malcolm Britton at home with his dad's repaired boots and his wartime diary following his emotional appearance on The Repair Shop

A retired former Melton college lecturer was brought to tears on popular TV programme, The Repair Shop, when he appeared with boots his father wore as a prisoner-of-war and a diary he kept during his incarceration by the Nazis.

Malcolm Britton (77), who lives at Frisby-on-the-Wreake, became emotional on the BBC1 show when he talked about the stories revealed in the tiny diary.

John William Britton, who was known as Jack, was captured on April 24, 1940, while fighting with the Lincolnshire Regiment in Norway.

He was detained in a number of Prisoner-of-war (POW) camps in Poland and Germany until the end of the war – latterly at Stalag 383 in Bavaria where he was liberated by the Americans.

Jay Blades and Dean Westmoreland take a close look at Jack Britton's battered boots on The Repair Shop

During his time as a POW, he acquired a pair of German-made boots, which he also wore during several gruelling marches to new camps.

Malcolm found them in a shed when his father died, aged 74 in 1985, and recently the family developed an interest in having them restored so future generations would know about Jack’s story.

Cobbler Dean Westmoreland and host Jay Blades were left spellbound as Malcolm described the significance of his father’s boots, which had a multitude of holes in them through wear and tear and being attacked by moths. Dean cleaned the leather, re-stitched them and repaired the holes.

"It was an emotional moment when I saw what Dean had done with them and then having to answer questions about dad,” Malcolm told the Melton Times.

Malcolm Britton reads his father's wartime diary at his home in Frisby

"I went in September to take them in and fetched them back in December and I didn’t know what they’d be able to do with the boots.

"They had hundreds of holes in them and the heels were coming away but he did a great job with them.”

Jack, who was born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, was 29 when he was captured by the Germans.

He recounted his experiences in a tiny diary – writing about severe food shortages in 1942, the long marches and learning about the deaths of his brother and brother-in-law during the war.

Jack Britton pictured during the war (right) and many years after the war had ended

Malcolm, who taught agriculture students for many years at Brooksby Melton College from 1971, said: “The diary is more important than the boots really.

"It was so faded when we found it with his possessions after he died.

"It took me a long time to type it all out in order but it illustrates what he experienced during the war because he never talked about it he came home.”

Malcolm was born the year after his father returned home but his elder brother, John, lived through the war and was more aware of what his father was going through.

Malcom Britton deliver his father's boots to Jay Blades and Dean Westmoreland during his appearance on The Repair Shop

"He was very frail when he got back,” Malcolm recalled.

"He’d had TB during the war and my first memories of him were when I was about two and he was in and out of hospital.”

Malcolm added: “Dad wore those boots even after the war, when he was gardening or if it was snowing and he would go to work in them.

"Now they’ve been repaired my great-nieces and great-nephews try them on when they come to the house and we tell them about dad.”

Watch Malcolm’s episode of The Repair Shop on the BBC iPlayer HERE.