ON July 27, 1916 the Bradford Pals were in trenches near the village of Richebourg, northern France, when German troops broke into the front line armed with pistols and bombs.

They left with several prisoners, including Bradford City footballer Dickie Bond.

Buried at St Vaast Post Cemetery, Richebourg, are several Bradford men killed during the hand-to-hand fighting that day. Among them is Private Harry Wilkinson, who lived at Baxendall Street, West Bowling, with his parents and two brothers. Harry went to Marshfield Senior School, leaving in July, 1911 to work as an errand boy, before enlisting into the army. He died aged 19.

For Ray Greenhough, it was a moving moment when he found Pte Wilkinson’s name on a headstone during a trip to Somme battlefields and military cemeteries. Ray had researched the soldier’s background, along with more than 60 other former Marshfield pupils who died in the First World War. His findings have been published in a booklet, Marshfield School: Our Heroes of World War 1.

“Since the 1920s, members of Marshfield School staff, governors and generations of pupils have passed by the school’s WW1 Memorial without a second glance,” says Ray, whose sons attended the school. “For 16 years I was one of those governors.

“In 2014, headteacher Colleen Jackson had the memorial board moved to a more prominent position and questions started to be asked. Having obtained a degree in Local and Regional History at Bradford University, I saw it as an ideal project to undertake. After several months of research, the booklet was produced.”

Ray found the names of several former ‘Marshfielders’ - some on graves, others commemorated on memorials - during his trip to France with Bradford World War 1 Group last November, marking the centenary of the end of the Battle of the Somme. Now Ray plans to update his research - and raise the profile of Indian Army soldiers who lay buried alongside Bradford men at St Vaast.

During the Battle of Festubert in May, 1915, British and Indian soldiers fought together, attacking enemy lines. They buried fallen comrades in an old orchard near a dressing station, at the terminus of a trench tramway.

“The Indian men were from Rawalpindi, Jullundur, and Jhelum,” says Ray. “Through my research, this global war has gradually taken on a much wider significance. In terms of the Marshfield School memorial and the current school community comes a growing realisation that we have a shared history. Can further research uncover some surprising realities for the families of today’s Marshfield children?”

Adds Ray: “During WW1 men from around the world fought together, for the British Empire. There are many names of Indian soldiers on the Menin Gate at Ypres. Yet it’s a side to the war not widely taught. Today Marshfield is a large primary school with predominantly Asian children. Many will live in houses which were once the homes of Marshfielders who went to war. Families who today form a large part of the school’s community may have links to this war that are unknown to them.

“Young men from Marshfield fought and died in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Greece and Italy. Fighting alongside them, and often buried in the same cemetery, were soldiers from many other countries, including the then un-divided India. Could current scholars at Marshfield be the great grandchildren of these men?

“I hope that by highlighting what happened to these Marshfielders, whose names are on the school war memorial, and their links with the Indian Army, today’s pupils will learn more about men from their cultural background who fought alongside the British, making the same sacrifices.”

Ray also found the grave of his wife’s great uncle, William Warrener, at St Vaast. Private Warrener, from Great Horton, died of wounds on April 20, 1916. “It was a moving moment when I found his grave. My first thought was, ‘He’s surrounded by his comrades, so he has company’,”says Ray. “I visited cemeteries in France and Belgium, seeking out Marshfielders. At each grave I located I paid my own personal homage, laying of a Remembrance poppy cross."

Ray’s booklet pays tribute to the 65 former Marshfield pupils who died in WW1 and also includes the names of about 300 other former pupils who survived the conflict.

“I wanted to honour each individual whose name is on the school’s memorial,” says Ray. “For a long time the plaque became ‘invisible’, I suspect the same has happened in other schools. I wanted to breathe new life into the memory of these men, who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and future Marshfield pupils.”

The booklet looks at school life during the war. In March, 1915 it was visited by military officers considering whether it could be used as a military hospital. The school took part in fundraising for Bradford’s war hospitals, with children bringing in food for a hospital at Wibsey School, and various convalescent homes. “Gardening was introduced into the curriculum in 1917. In a competition of 50 school gardens in Bradford, Marshfield gained second prize,” says Ray.

In September, 1917 the school log book recorded that two ‘old boys’ had been awarded a Military Cross - Ernest Smith and Willie Pennington. In his booklet, Ray also looks at conditions Marshfielders endured on the front.

Sergeant Cyril Lee recalls horrors of a battle at Ypres: "I was only 17 and I'd sought adventure, but when I saw this I thought, 'What have I come to?'"

Rifleman Henry Williamson recalls winter in the trenches: "My trench was seven foot deep, the water was a yellowy clay colour. The latrines overflowed and it could take up to an hour to climb out of the trench, often soldiers would fall into the water and drown, their bodies only being located when someone stood on them."

On December 13, 1922, Marshfield School's headmaster, AW Holmes, unveiled the new war memorial, "to the proud and grateful memory of the boys of this school who gave their lives in the Great War."