ICY rain lashed down as Paul Sharkey made his way through a windswept cemetery in northern France.

Finally he came face-to-face with the name he’d been searching for - Charles Sharkey, his grandfather’s cousin, who fought and died on the Somme.

Charles was 22 when he was killed in action in 1915. His body was never found. A century later, Paul placed a poppy cross at the foot of a Portland stone panel bearing Charles’s name. “I’m probably the first person in my family to visit this place,” said Paul. “It has meant a lot to come here and see his name.”

Charles, from Kincasslagh, Co. Donegal, served with 2nd Battalion Irish Guards and was killed on the fifth day of the Battle of Loos on September 30 1915. Through relatives in Ireland, Paul had been in contact with a Dublin historian who researched Charles and established that his name was on Panels 9/10 in Dud Corner Cemetery.

Last weekend Paul, of Baildon, travelled to France with Bradford World War One Group which helped him locate the panel. Members also found, on the same panel, the names of two other men from the same coastal village as Charles - Patrick Duggan and John Brennan. Patrick was killed at Loos on September 25, 1915, aged 19. John, 33, died at the battle of Hulluch on April 29, 1916 at the exact time of the Easter Rising. With revolution raging in Dublin, the British army was the enemy and there was great hostility against Irish soldiers fighting for it in the First World War. Those who returned from the war were cut off by whole communities.

"They were seen as traitors, 'fighting for the enemy'," said Paul. "For a long time, Irish men who'd served in the war weren't mentioned, nobody acknowledged them. I think, a century on, they can finally be remembered.

"As we pulled into Dud Corner there was heavy rain and ice on the ground. With such dramatic weather, and limited time, I wasn't sure we'd find these names. I'm very thankful to the WW1 Group for their support, it means a lot to me and to my cousin in Ireland. It's very moving to know Charles is remembered here, along with two other men from his tiny village."

The Bradford WW1 Group visited Loos Memorial, at Dud Corner Cemetery, as part of a trip to the region to unveil a new Bradford Pals memorial, as reported in the Telegraph & Argus this week.

Dud Corner stands near the site of the Lens Road Redoubt, a German strongpoint captured by the 15th (Scottish) Division on the first day of the Battle of Loos. The name "Dud Corner" is thought to be due to the large number of unexploded enemy shells found in the area after the Armistice.

On each side of the cemetery is a 15ft high wall, on which are cared the names of 20,000 men whose bodies were recovered from the area. They include 22 men from Bradford.