WHEN commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme began, Sarah Goldthorpe never imagined it would trigger a fresh discovery close to home.

Says Sarah, who edits Soldier magazine: "My dad and I chat about most things, from the quality of my breakdown cover to the pros and cons of Brexit, there isn’t much that doesn’t get verbally dissected in our family. So when a tiny diary from the front-line of the Somme was dropped into our conversation during July’s national commemoration at the Thiepval Memorial, I was taken aback. Apparently my great, great-uncle, a member of the Bradford Pals battalion, was one of those to carefully record events leading up to the battle, which came to an end 100 years ago this month.

"Cpl Norman Goldthorpe survived to tell the tale. And ever since the former newsagent’s death in 1979, the pocket jotter in question has been sitting in his daughter’s house. Years later, the serviceman committed more of his recollections to tape and this too remains in the family’s possession.

"I was astounded. How had that passed me by? Dad assumed I knew. Perhaps I thought that in a family whose military heritage is limited to a few episodes of national service, anything like this would've been common knowledge. Or perhaps I just assumed Dad would have pointed it out to me as the conflict’s 100th anniversary grew in prominence.

Whatever the reason, this tiny, mud-stained relic from the darkest chapter in the British Army’s history had remained a complete mystery.

According to Anthony Richards, Head of Documents and Sound for the Imperial War Museum, such tales are not uncommon. His organisation has been collecting firsthand accounts of the conflict since 1917 and often that process begins when family members stumble across something that surprises them. “It’s really nice when things like this come to light,” he says. “Since the First World War centenary we have had a noticeable rise in diaries and accounts offered to us.

“The commemorations often remind people that they have items in the family, and there is probably also an element of people not realising that what they have is particularly significant.”

Cpl Goldthorpe's notebook contains some details "so succinct you can’t help but be transported back to the chaotic conditions of the battlefield", says Sarah. “Weather still bad,” a short entry for June 8 reads.

The following day: “Had to retire into trenches. Germans fire rifle grenades. Very narrow escape.”

The briefness afforded to such dangerous encounters tells more of a story than the words themselves. But it is the entry on the evening of June 30 that really sends chills down my spine.

“Entered trenches at 1100," it states. After a bit of technical wizardry, the audio file of Cpl Goldthorpe describing the conflict in his own words was emailed over to me. And his recollection of the opening hours on July 1 makes for rather difficult listening.

“At 0820 I remember saying a little prayer and just before we climbed out, our officer Lt Foizey said ‘I know that I will not come back’,” he explains solemnly. “I told him to believe he would as I certainly believed I would.

“I scrambled out behind Lt Foizey. Having not travelled more than 30 yards or so the section was reduced to four men.

“Lt Foizey ordered his small party to take cover behind a small hillock, while he went forward to see what was happening, but he was killed covering only a couple of yards. I saw [him] tumble over the back of a trench, wounded in the thigh. I made him comfortable, and had his wounds dressed, and placed him in a traverse at the back of the trench.

“Soon afterwards a terrible explosion took place, throwing up all the sandbags and earthwork in the immediate neighbourhood and burying several men, together with Lt Foizey.”

“The value of these diaries is in the personal experiences they reveal,” Mr Richards continues. “You can have lots of accounts written at the same time, describing the same thing, but each one paints events in a different way. Put together, they give a bigger picture.”

Adds Sarah: "Remembrance Day seems to have more of an impact on me with every year I continue to work for Soldier.

But this month in particular I will spend the two-minute silence feeling slightly regretful that - just for a moment - one of my own relative' brave deeds were forgotten."