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A British soldier marches resolutely alongside a German prisoner blinded by his injuries, his bandage seeping blood, his face caked in days-old dirt. Another leads a horse draped with sodden trench boots through dense mud, his feet disappearing into the sticky quagmire.

This was the daily life which rumbled on behind the bloody battlefronts of the Somme, now brought to life again through photographs, originally black and white, reproduced in colour for the first time to mark the centenary of our nation’s bloodiest conflict.

(Image: PhotograFix / mediadrumworld.com) (Image: PhotograFix/mediadrumworld.com)

Today we commemorate 100 years since the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which nearly 60,000 British soldiers were killed minutes after that very first push.

(Image: PhotograFix / mediadrumworld.com)

By November 18, the end of the battle fives months later, over one million men had been wounded or killed, including 420,000 casualties in the British Army.

(Image: PhotograFix / mediadrumworld.com)

But as they mourned those thousands lost, many close friends, these men remained, forced to live and work as normally as they could through the shock and horror.

(Image: PhotograFix / mediadrumworld.com)

These images, colourised by expert Tom Marshall from Shropshire-based firm PhotograFix, also document the dogged smiles and pursuit of normalcy which persisted behind the lines.

Tommies hanging their washing, cooking on makeshift stoves and even sharing a laugh when they could.

(Image: PhotograFix / mediadrumworld.com)

They also capture a visit by King George V himself to the horror of the front.

(Image: PhotograFix / mediadrumworld.com)

“I decided to colourise these images as a tribute to the men pictured, says Tom, who has been working closely with the British Army and some of the world’s leading museums.

“By colourising the photos I hope that more people will stop to look and learn more about the soldiers at the Somme and what they went through one hundred years ago.”