BARRIE Bertram, of the Channel Islands Great War Study Group, has been in touch to see whether any of our readers can help identify three unidentified soldiers in these photographs.

He explained that the pictures were supplied to the group by Jerseyman Colin Russell whose maternal grandfather, Edwin Edward Perchard, and his great-uncle Sydney John Perchard, are featured.

Mr Bertram continued: ‘Both men had been members of the 2nd (or East) Battalion in Jersey’s Militia, and would have been conscripted in 1917, briefly entering the Royal Jersey Garrison Battalion, before leaving for England to join the British Army.

‘With the fortunes of war, their fates would be different. Sydney would enter the Hampshires before being transferred to serve in the 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, in which unit he would be killed on 6th November, 1917, during the final phases of the Third Battle of Ypres, barely six weeks after arriving in France and Flanders.

‘Sadly, Sydney is one of the many thousands who has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. Edwin was more fortunate in that he survived the war having been twice wounded.

‘He had joined the Dorsetshire Regiment before being transferred to the 1st Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps with some 30-40 other Jerseymen such was the demand of replacing casualties where Battalions had been seriously depleted.’

The three photographs show Edwin and Sydney with other unidentified soldiers.

If any JEP readers recognise any of the unidentified men in the pictures, they are asked to contact the group via the website www.greatwarci.net or by e-mail to bhbertram@tiscali.co.uk.