Somme selfies: private from the distinctive Durham Light Infantry

In the run-up to July’s centenary of one of the bloodiest battles in human history, The Independent is publishing a different Tommy’s picture every day

A private from the Durham Light Infantry poses for the camera. Two “chums” battalions from the DLI fought on the calamitous first day of the Somme on 1 July 1916. Many of them were miners who had volunteered en bloc in the early weeks of the war in 1914. This image is part of a collection of photographs that were taken in Warloy-Baillon, behind the front line, for a few francs by local photographer, Alfred Depire. Many British regiments are represented in the collection. The largest single contingent is from the DLI, easily identified by the distinctive cap badge. Only a handful of the soldiers – and none of those from the DLI – have been identified.