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A couple who have spent 10 years researching thousands of British soldiers who were lost at the Somme have finally put faces to the names engraved in history.

Ken and Pam Linge have also revealed the fascinating stories and diverse backgrounds of the men who died during the disastrous World War I battle 100 years ago this year but who have no known grave.

The couple used the Thiepval Memorial in France that lists only the names and service numbers of over 72,000 men whose bodies were never found as the starting point for their dedicated work.

They travelled all over Britain to obtain records, information and photographs from relatives, archives and army museums to reveal the diverse mix of soldiers and officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

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And their own tribute to the schoolboys, actors, musicians, poets, Olympians, clergymen, trade unionists and artists has now been documented in the form of a new book.

Read more: The Unknown Warrior was every husband, son and father who never came home from WW1

Missing But Not Forgotten focuses on the stories of 230 individuals, from privates to lieutenant colonels and even seven Victoria Cross winners.

The first day of the Somme offensive on July 1, 1916 remains the worst day in British military history, with some 20,000 men killed and 40,000 wounded.

By the end of the battle in November there were more than 1 million casualties on both sides.

Mr Linge, a 66-year-old retired finance director, said: “Many of the 72,000 men on the Thiepval Memorial would have been found after they fell and buried nearby.

“But because the Western Front didn’t really move their graves were then obliterated by shelling.

“Their mates would have taken their personal effects off of them so there was nothing left to identify them by.

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“We went to the Thiepval in 2003 because five men from our village are on the memorial. But when we went into the visitor centre to find out more information about them there wasn’t anything.

Read more: Only a miracle saved my dad in the Battle of the Somme, says son 100 years on

“We decided to start to research these men and find out more about them as individuals and not just the letters and numbers carved into stone.

“We are getting to the point where there is nobody around who ever knew these people face to face so it is up to others to tell their stories. That is what remembrance is about and what this book is about.”

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One of the men memorialised in the book is Sergeant Claude Church of the Norfolk Regiment. He served a footman at Buckingham Place before the First World War.

He was killed almost instantly by an artillery shell that burst in the German trench he had just led his platoon in taking on July 2, 1916. He was aged 28.

Reverend Francis Tuke was the vicar of the parish of Holmer near Hereford and was a talented sportsman, playing county cricket for Herefordshire.

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He went to war as a military chaplain and was killed by a shell blast while he carried water to a wounded comrade at Bernafay Wood on July 20. He was aged 49 and had a wife and two daughters.

A fellow chaplain wrote at the time: “He was one of the bravest and most fearless men I ever knew.”

Read more:Wreck of German U-boat found more than 100 years after it was sunk in World War One

The tragic family story of Captain Benjamin Leader of the West Riding Regiment is also highlighted in the book.

A Cambridge University graduate, he was a landscape painter and became a member of the famous Newlyn School - a colony of artists attracted to the Cornish resort by the natural light.

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He died on October 12, 1916 during an attack on a German trench near Lesboeufs. He was aged 39 and had a wife and two children. His son, Benjamin John Leader, served in the RAF in World War Two and died in 1942 aged 28.

Private George Collett, of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, must have been one of the youngest 'men' to die during the Battle of the Somme.

He enlisted in the army at the age of 14 after telling officials he was 19. He was killed on the front line near Ovillers on July 18 aged 16.

Capt Robert Davies, of the London Regiment, was a stockbroker before the First World War and also an excellent shot with a rifle, so much so that he was part of the British men's shooting team in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.

He died on September 9, 1916 while leading a company on an attack at Bouleaux Wood. He was aged 39.

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Of all the names on the Thiepval Memorial there can't be any more tragic than William and John Wright - two brothers who were killed on the same day.

The two privates served in the London Regiment Royal Fusiliers and died on July 1, 1916 - the first day of the Somme offensive - during fighting at Gommecourt.

William was aged 20 and John was 18 and they were two of six children to Albert and Lucy Wright.

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James Kessack was a docker from Glasgow who became a prominent member of the Dockers Union. In 1914 during a visit to Liverpool to speak to striking miners, he dived into a canal to save a drowning boy.

In the First World War he was a captain in the Middlesex Regiment and died on November 13, 1916 during an attack on Redan Ridge. He died aged 36 and left a widow and three children.

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Tragically, two of his sons - James and David Kessack - were killed in the Second World War.

Of the seven winners of the Victoria Cross listed on the memorial only two were awarded for heroics before the Somme.

One of those went to Rifleman John Mariner, of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who single-handedly took out a German machine-gun emplacement in May 1915.

After being awarded the VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace, he overstayed his leave to England by two days.

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He was hauled before magistrates who promptly let him off when they saw his gleaming medal on lapel.

Rfn Mariner, a collier from Manchester before the war, was killed aged 34 on July 1, 1916 near Loos.

Corporal Jerry Delaney, of the Royal Fusiliers, was a lightweight boxing champion from Bradford before the war and went to France in November 1915.

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In early 1916 he was very nearly killed by a German sniper who shot through his cap, grazing the top of his head with a bullet.

But his luck run out at the Somme and he was killed aged 22 near Delville Wood on July 27.

Ken and Pam Linge have privately funded their epic research project and their four bed house in Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, has been taken over by the sheer volume of papers and files they have amassed.

Missing But Not Forgotten is published by Pen and Sword and the royalties due to the couple from the sales will be donated to the Royal British Legion and the ABF Soldier's Charity.