Eagle-eyed Telegraph & Argus reader Peter Webster was the first to respond to an appeal this week to help trace a rare lapel badge worn by some of Bradford's bravest soldiers.

The retired mill worker, who lives in Undercliffe, rooted through a box of medals which had been awarded to his grandfather Henry Barker Webster in the Bradford Pals and found the red and blue enamelled pin badge nestling at the bottom.

Mr Webster, 69, dusted off the box kept on top of his wardrobe after reading the story in the T&A about former Bradford man David Whithorn who wanted to trace one of the badges in time for a special tribute to the city's Pals on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme next year.

The badges were given to the men of the Bradford Pals to pin on their uniforms before they went off to fight at the Somme.

Next year members of the Great War Society, a living history group, will go to France on July 1 kitted out as the city's volunteers to remember them.

Mr Whithorn, who has spent the last 30 years researching the Pals story, said they wanted to make the tribute as authentic as possible by having at least one of the original lapel badges to wear on the day.

Mr Whithorn, who now lives in Basingstoke, said he had sought "in vain" to find one of the lapel badges and was delighted when the T&A got in touch to say within a day of the story appearing three readers had been on the phone with good news.

He said: "I can't believe it. It's marvellous news. To actually hold one of these badges at last will be tremendous.

"It will be a huge honour to wear it as part of our Pals tribute."

Mr Webster, who had the medals handed down to him as the eldest grandson, said he would be happy to loan his grandfather's lapel badge for next year's tribute.

He said: "When I saw the badge in the paper I had a feeling I'd seen it before in my grandfather's box.

"He came back from the Somme but was never the same man again.

"I was told that he had been buried alive by a shell-burst in a trench and it was only because the top of his bayonet was sticking out that he was rescued and pulled out.

"He never spoke to us children about what happened but he would be remembered by some people for sitting in his chair at the top of Usher Street, Wakefield, selling flags on Remembrance Day."

Another reader to get in touch over a badge was retired engineer Keith Walker whose uncle Albert Walker, of Tennant Street, West Bowling, was wounded in the Pals.

Mr Whithorn and other volunteer recruits from the Great War Society will advance on the French village of Serre next July where so many of the Bradford soldiers sacrificed their lives.

In honour of the men who never came home, wreaths will be laid and a solitary bugler will play the Last Post at sunset, close to the Bradford Trench at Serre Road No. 1 cemetery which marks the spot where the Pals went over the top.

Official records showed 650 Bradford Pals left the trenches within the first hours of that July day in 1916 only to be gunned down - 500 of them were listed as casualties.

Bradford will pay its own tribute to the Pals by hosting a special Somme service, an annual event since 2003, next to the battalions' memorial in Centenary Square on July 1 at 11am.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Bradford Pals' Somme Tribute can either visit the Great War Society's website at www.tgws. fsnet.co.uk, or write to Mr Whithorn at 6 Brambling Close, Kempshott, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG22 5JX.