WW1: Unseen images of First World War are revealed for first time

A Buckley man has shared his family's extensive collection of First World War photographs for the first time.

Paul Leslie Davies told the Leader the pictures were handed down through his family from his great-grandfather Harry Townshend, who served in the Army photographic corps from 1917 to 1919.

Mr Davies, 54, said: "I should imagine he would have been in his early 20s when he served - I have been trying to research it.

"The photos are a combination of ones he took and others which he collected.

"He had them in his possession and when he passed away they were left to me great grandmother.

"They have always been in my family. I was given them by my mum to look after."

Mr Davis explained that the collection shows a different side of the war, which he hadn't expected.

He continued: "You've seen pictures of the First World War on TV and in papers, but these pictures also show the other side of things -like how they treated horses.

Paul Leslie Davies with his great grandfather Harry Townshend's photo collection

"They had a massive veterinary hospital just for horses because they used thousands of them.

"You see the other side of the trenches where they weren't active and they were doing things like carrying water to the front in petrol cans.

"It shows trenches that had been taken by an offensive and the aftermath of it; pictures which you don't see a lot of.

"You also see where they had their off time and had been dressing up in stuff for things like pantomimes.

"They also took pictures of the towns they recaptured and how ruined and destroyed they were.

"You can see Ypres before and after the war. It was flattened.

"Some of the pictures in there - it is amazing.

"I just wished I'd known so I would have been able to talk to him about it and get his thoughts on it.

"There must have been a reason why he kept all these.

"It wasn't the done thing to show images like that and talk about what went on.

"They hid this destruction and death that went on over there.

"They wanted to forget it, but you can't forget stuff like that."

According to Mr Davies, Harry Townshend was a greengrocer who moved to Mynydd Isa from the Accrington area in the late 1940s.

In addition to the collection of photographs, Mr Davies also has his great-grandfather's personal album - which he has had restored and recovered.

Speaking of how he felt when he looked through the album, he said: "It was quite funny, to think they were quite straight laced and stiff upper lipped in that day and age.

“They had pets – a dog – and some of the pictures he took were where they went visiting cathedrals that had been bombed and burned out.

"They also took pictures of the local people."

Mr Davis told the Leader he hoped to be able to have some of the images shown in public.

He said he felt it was important to share the photos this year in order to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the end of the war.

"With war today, a lot of it is technology orientated," he added.

"The personal side is taken out of it but there are still people going to war and being injured and killed.

"In the First World War there was no technology. It was a man and his gun.

"I want to have these photos shown. I was going to do something before and during but I thought that was wrong.

"I wanted to do the final remembrance of that end 100 years ago."

Among the pictures is one labelled as having been taken at 11am on the very last day of the war.

Describing it, he said: "To me it says they can breathe a sigh of relief.

"You can see in that picture that they are sitting there quite relaxed. "If that had still been active they wouldn't be sitting there like that semi-on the top of the trench."

Mr Davis is currently exploring his options for exhibiting the images.