WHEN in February I printed an appeal for Mr Roger Morlidge in Kent, who is writing a screenplay about his grandmother's experiences in Bolton in the First World War, he received a number of responses.

You may recall that at the time I wrote that the local Territorial battalions in Bolton, the 5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, were central to his grandmother's story.

Armed with certain knowledge after research, Mr Morlidge went to the regimental museum in Preston to look at the battalions' archives - and was rewarded with half a dozen pieces of paper in a cardboard box.

"I am obviously more than a little shocked to discover that this is the sum total of archive material relating to the thousands of men in Bolton who served in these battalions," he wrote. He appealed if any readers had any diaries, photographs or other material which might help to contact him. Obviously some people did so.

Mr Morlidge has now sent me these two pictures, which can be viewed by clicking HERE and look for "LB soldiers1" and "LB soldiers2".

One of them, as it says on the photograph, is of the 5th LN Lancs. Regiment, Bolton, at Holmescales Camp, Kendal. "They were part of a brigade with the territorials from Preston, Lancaster and Ulverston, and would meet once a year to train together as a complete brigade. In 1914 there were eight companies in the battalion. Headquarters, A, B, C, and E companies were in Bolton, D company was in Farnworth, F. Company in Astley Bridge, G company in Hindley and H company in Little Hulton.

The other picture shows men of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in Rhyl in 1916. "The 5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment increased to four battalions in the Great War and one of these battalions, the 3/5th, was a reserve unit who trained drafts to join the other battalions on active service. "They were based in Oswestry in 1916 with the 3/4th battalion, the reserve unit from the Preston territorials. Unfortunately there is not sufficient information on the picture to tell exactly which battalion these men are from - the only writing on the back says 'Jack in the Great War'. It is interesting to see that these soldiers are armed with the Long Lee Enfield rifles, obsolete since just after the Boer War, but brought back into service to equip the huge numbers of soldiers who joined up. 'Jack' and his friends were probably billeted in Rhyl, but sadly we will probably never know what happened to them after this picture was taken."

So there you are, folks, lots of history from Mr Morlidge. Can you help him with more material, though? If so, you can contact him at his new address, 105 Abbotts Crescent, London, E4 9SB (Tel. 0208 5271440).

To view the photos, click HERE and HERE