Previously unseen faces of the First World War

On Armistice Day the Imperial War Museum has made 100 portraits of people who served in the Great War available online

The photographs, many of which have not been widely seen before, offer a personal and poignant record of the impact of the First World War. They are taken from a collection of thousands of portraits acquired by the museum when it was founded in 1917 to record experiences of the Great War.

Imperial War Museum staff will continue to upload an additional portrait from this collection to Flickr Commons every weekday until August 2014, the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, and would like the public to help find out more about the life stories of the people in the photographs by adding comments, information, links or text to the photos.

The museum acquired the portraits between 1917 and 1920, following an international public appeal which was advertised in the press as well as wartime ration books. In some cases, bereaved families donated their only photograph. Some photographs have only a name, rank and unit. Others were accompanied by detailed letters and biographies. Britain and the Commonwealth are represented, as are the range of military ranks and services.

Preview some of the published images above and view the full collection of Faces of the First World War at 1914.org/faces