Somme selfies: seven chums from seven regiments

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

Seven British soldiers, from several different regiments, pose just before or during the battle of the Somme. On each day until the centenary on 1 July, we are publishing a “Selfie from the Somme” – an image chosen from a collection of more than 700 long-lost photographs brought to light by The Independent in recent years. Many of the images were taken in front of this same scruffy door in the back garden of photographer Alfred Depire’s home in Warloy-Baillon, eight miles from the trenches. None of these soldiers, wearing different cap badges, have been identified.