Three British artillerymen stare at the camera during or just before the terrible battle of the Somme which began 100 years ago next month. Look at the Tommy on the left. He is a black man – one of the very few pictures of a black British soldier of World War One ever to be found
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 have been identified. All that we know is that, white or black, they were brothers in arms, thrown together by a brutal war.
