Somme selfies: the three Tommies and the rag doll

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

Scared? Us? Three Tommies and a rag doll grin at the camera during or before the terrible battle of the Somme which began 100 years ago next month. 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. The images were taken in late 1915 and in 1916 for a few centimes by a local photographer, Alfred Depire, for British soldiers to send home as postcards to their loved ones. None of the three soldiers in the picture has been identified. Their cap and shoulder badges suggest that they may have been Royal Engineers.