FOUR years ago, an Australian television company in Sydney, investigating the fate of Australian soldiers on the battlefields of World war 1, found in the attic of a French farmhouse a hidden store of glass plate negative photographs of Australian and British soldiers.

There were about 4,000 of them, packed away in dusty boxes. A French couple, Louis and Antoniette Thuillier, took the pictures nearly a century ago. As Allied troops poured into the area around Vignacourt for the planned offensive on the Somme, the Thuilliers photographed men and officers perhaps to earn money.

Australian media billionaire and philanthropist Kerry Stokes bought a number of the plates which were taken to Australia where they were cleaned and digitised and now form the Kerry Stokes Collection. The results can be seen on these pages.

Pictures of Australian soldiers were published in a book called The Lost Diggers, compiled and written by Yorkshire-born Ross Coulthart, an investigative reporter for Channel Seven.

Currently, he's working on a companion volume featuring photographs of British soldiers, The Lost Tommies, putting names to faces and tracing any existing family and relatives. Many of these men served in the Bradford Pals Battalions or the West Yorkshire Regiment of Territorials.

Ross said: "We think this is an amazing discovery and we want people to know about it. I tell you that because we feel that some UK museums and regiments have been quite hostile to us when we explained we're writing a book. There seems to be an attitude that the user should pay to get access to he kind of information that we are making available for free."

Ross is working in tandem with his wife and researcher Kerrie Douglass. One of the pictures they sent the T&A shows an officer with a woman whom he has evidently just married.

Kerrie said: "It is an officer from the Prince of Wales own West Yorkshire Regiment who appears to have married while he was in Vignacourt on the Western Front. It is not one of our clearer images but I am intrigued by it.

"I can tell from the uniform that he was a Lieutenant from one of the Territorial Battalions (the 5th or the 6th) of the Regiment. He has a wound stripe which means he has been wounded once and this stripe also means the photograph was taken some time after August 1916 since these stripes were not introduced until that time.

"I hope that one of your readers might just know something about this officer. There can’t have been many officers from the 5th or 6th Battalions of this Regiment who chose to marry while in France."

One of the most startlingly clear images sent by Ross and Kerrie shows a group of 28 men in three rows. They think the picture must have been in the Thuilliers' farmhouse barn - which still exists.

Tricia Platts, Secretary of Bradford's World War 1 Group, responded excitedly when she saw the picture.

"Fantastic photo!!! These are 6th Battalion men. The officer in the middle of the picture is Lieutenant Walter Alexander Scales MC. You can see his MC ribbon which was gazetted in March 1916:-

'For conspicuous gallantry. During an attack, by his prompt and energetic action he succeeded in getting his platoon through without injury. Later he assisted in the rescue of wounded men from a wrecked dugout in full view of the enemy. He has repeatedly carried out good patrol work.'

"The action described probably happened in December 1915. I wonder if the photo was taken when he first had the medal ribbon - as a celebration with his platoon?

"He was later promoted to Captain but died at the age of 24 in January 1918. His parents were Edith and Walter Henry Scales, of Bradford. He is buried at Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No.1,"

Coincidentally, another of the pictures sent to us from Australia corresponds with a picture postcard handed in to the World War 1 Group. Although the group photos are similar they are different: the Australian image shows seven men whereas eight are on the postcard. The connection is that both images were taken in the same place by Louis and Antoinette Thuillier.

Tricia Platts said: "The juxtaposition of the sepia postcard handed in to the WW1 Group with the image from Australia is quite remarkable.

"The Bradford Territorials were billeted in the village of Vignacourt for eight weeks from April 4 to June 9, the longest continuous 'rest' since the Battalion arrived in France in April 1915.

"A typical Picardy village, Vignacourt had not yet suffered any war damage. The wide main street was lined with lime trees and a series of ponds in the middle of the street were fringed with willows. 'The Tykes' concert party gave frequent shows and the villagers were particularly friendly.

"Of course, the men were kept busy with training and drill and reinforcements (three officers and 170 other ranks) were inducted into the battalion. Steel helmets were issued to every man in the Battalion and a coloured identification patch was sewn onto the right sleeve of each man's tunic. The purpose of this was to help officers and NCOs reorganise men after an attack.

"Heavier work included the construction of new railway sidings in the village and a detachment of 430 men and officers worked in the forward areas to prepare trenches and assembly positions.

"Casualty Clearing Stations were being expanded, stretchers and medical supplies accumulated and, in the evenings, men could walk over to watch orderlies working overtime in digging graves.

Even more ominously, the expanded railway sidings began to fill up with thousands and thousands of shells of every calibre.

"The thoughts of everyone were now concentrated on the battle which was to begin on July 1, 1916. Phrases such as 'they're fattening us up' and 'if your turn comes you can do nothing to get out of it' were matched by a rather jolly attitude to money: 'There's no sense being killed with money in your pocket!'. The champagne flowed freely in those last few balmy summer evenings."

Among the seven officers in the image sent from Australia is Captain Richard Whincup, the Battalion chaplain, the grandfather of novelist Jilly Cooper, who was born in Ilkley.

Ross Coulthart said: "Jill's late husband Leo Cooper has been an invaluable resource for us with his wonderful books on British regiments."

There is a well-known postcard of Whincup inaugurating the war memorial at St Barnabas Church, Heaton, which Tricia Platts has seen.

She said: "The memorial takes the form of a stone seat and lych gate at the entrance to the church grounds. The memorial board inside the church has the names of several men from his battalion (6th West Yorks) including Lt Col Charles Edward Scott who took command after HO Wade was wounded on July 1, 1916.

"C E Scott was wounded in early August 1916 and died of wounds in Camiers casualty clearing station on August 9, leaving a widow and two children.

"He was much loved by his men and a friend and parishioner on Whincup's before the war began. Scott and Wade were in partnership as solicitors at Wade, Tetley, Wade and Scott."