Somme selfies: the boxing champion

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 sporty-looking British soldier poses confidently for the camera before or during the battle of the Somme which started 100 years ago this week. He looks as if he may have been a regimental boxing champion. Can anyone identify that face? This image is part of a collection of photographs that were taken in late 1915 and in 1916 for a few francs by a local photographer, Alfred Depire, for British soldiers to send home as postcards to their loved ones. Only a handful of the soldiers have been identified.