Somme selfies: Tommy in the sheepskin coat

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

Sheepskins were sent out to France during an overcoat shortage in 1915

This soldier is not a Greek partisan but a British Tommy, pictured in northern France in the bitter winter of 1915-16, before the terrible battle of the Somme. Overcoats were short that winter. Sheepskins were sent out from Britain instead. This unidentified soldier is also wearing a “Gor Blimey” hat – first issued in 1915. British soldiers fought without steel helmets for most of 1914 and 1915.