The Independent newspaper in the UK has released some newly discovered portraits of soldiers from the First World War. This amazing find in the heart of the French countryside is set, hopefully, to throw new light on to the war to end all wars. Ninety years ago over four hundred glass plates were stored way up in the loft of a barn, possibly for safe keeping. They were of British soldiers on the eve of battle. With the barn under new ownership these plates were discovered and thrown out as rubbish. Now the task has been set – to discover who these men were. Many will have died at the Battle of the Somme and these would have been their last recorded images.

A treasure trove of First World War photographs was discovered recently in France. Published here for the first time, they show British soldiers on their way to the Somme. But who took them? And who were these Tommies marching off to die?