PHOTOGRAPHS of Bradford Pals have appeared in the Telegraph & Argus over recent weeks as we approached tomorrow’s centenary of the Armistice. But, since details of the men pictured didn’t make it into T&A archives, the photos are of unnamed soldiers.

Now we can put a name to a face in this photograph of the Second Bradford Pals Battalion, thanks to Rita Calam whose grandfather, Cpl Percy Bateman, is on the back row. Rita contacted us this week after reading our feature on Walter Ashworth, who was shot in the face on the first day of the Somme Offensive and underwent pioneering plastic surgery to re-build his face. Walter, who served with the 18th West Yorkshire Regiment (2nd Bradford Pals), suffered gunshot wounds to his mouth, back and leg, destroying much of his face, and was referred to the Cambridge Military Hospital, treated by renowned plastic surgeon Captain Harold Gillies.

Walter went on to live until the age of 85. Others in this photograph of fellow Bradford Pals, which was included in our spread, weren’t so lucky. “My grandfather, Percy Bateman, was wounded on the Somme the same day as Walter Ashworth,” says Mrs Calam. “Percy was transported to London and was operated at the General Hospital on July 8. They were going to amputate his leg but he didn’t survive. He had a gun carriage funeral procession from his home in Lister Avenue, East Bowling, to Bowling Cemetery.”

Percy, a weaving overlooker at John Helmsley’s in West Bowling, was 31. On Sunday Mrs Calam will pay tribute to him at a Remembrance ceremony at Oakenshaw’s Victoria Park. She adds: “Two other men in the Pals photograph became military policemen, I think they were all Wibsey men, but I don’t know their names.”

Do you know any of the men in the photograph? Email emma.clayton@telegraphandargus.co.uk

* Remembering the Armistice, our thoughts turn to those who lost their lives. But one Bradford family welcomed home all its sons - Percy, Gordon and Harry Monkman. “We’re lucky to remember all three brothers, who survived against the odds,” says Martin Greenwood. “Gordon and Harry lived until their 80s - and my grandfather, Percy, was 93. In 1914 my great-uncles joined the 16th West Yorkshire Regiment (Bradford Pals) - 1,770 out of 2,000 died, and no pair of brothers can be traced in the 230 who survived. Their cousin, Herbert Monkman, who joined the Pals also survived.

“Gordon survived the Somme and in 1918 earned the Military Cross for leading his platoon against an enemy machine gun post, compelling 100 German soldiers to surrender in one of the war’s last battles. Harry also fought on the Somme and suffered from shell-shock.

"Percy joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1915 and, like his brothers, was stationed at the Somme. He was seconded into an entertainment troupe; a lucky break that helped him survive the war, which he spent entertaining troops night after night just behind the front line."

Were there any other Bradford families who welcome back all their sons?

* Martin’s book about his grandfather, Percy Monkman: An Extraordinary Bradfordian, is published by PlashMill Press, £24.49.

Emma Clayton