MP for South Leicestershire, Alberto Costa, has given his backing to a campaign to identify images of soldiers of the Leicestershire Regiment who fought in the First World War.
Alberto is supporting the efforts of Mr Andy Garford who runs the ‘ww1leicestertigers.com’ website which seeks to identify the many thousands of postcard images of soldiers that were sent to family members and friends during the First World War.
Mr Garford is asking members of the public to send in images of any relatives they had in the Royal Leicestershire Regiment and for them to also visit his website to see if they can identify any pictures of those soldiers still listed as unknown.
The names of soldiers are then updated on a central database and shared with the Regiment’s official museum and other Leicestershire war memorial sites as well as the soldier’s families.
Alberto said, “I am delighted to be supporting Andy’s excellent work in trying to identify the images of those brave men who fought so valiantly in the First World War. I am immensely proud that the Leicestershire Regiment was stationed at the Glen Parva barracks in South Leicestershire, and of course the tremendous bravery and valour of all those in the Royal Leicestershire should not be forgotten, hence why Andy’s work to identify these soldiers is so incredibly important”.
Mr Andy Garford, founder of the ww1leicestertigers site, added, “As there are many thousands of postcard images around, I would like to try and get as many identified as possible and also for the public to send images of family members of the Leicestershire Regiment. The website has been up and running for around a year now, and there are still families who have images of their distant relatives but as time goes by these become lost and more identities are lost forever. It’s important for future generations to remember these brave men and what better way than to put a face to a name”.
Alberto said, “I would really encourage all residents of the county and elsewhere to please get in touch with Andy to send in their images of any relatives who served in the Royal Leicestershire Regiment and to also visit the site to see if they can spot a family member among the images yet to be identified. I know Andy has had a huge amount of success in reuniting family members with the images and stories of their serving relatives, and having a comprehensive, pictorial record of all those fought so valiantly on our behalf is crucially important in remembering their excellent service”.
Picture above shows Private William Buckingham of the Leicestershire Regiment – born in Bedford, he was raised at the Countesthorpe Cottage Children’s Homes and won the prestigious Victoria Cross in 1915 while serving in the Leicestershire Regiment before being killed at Thiepval in 1916.
Members of the public can visit ww1leicestertigers.com to see the images of Leicestershire Regiment soldiers and can contact Mr Andy Garford at [email protected]
