
Ivan Bawtree, pictured here in uniform in 1915, was attached to the British Red Cross

A poignant collection of images which were taken by a photographer who documented the graves of fallen soldiers on the Western Front have come to light in a new book.

Ivan Bawtree was one of only three professional photographers assigned to the Graves Registration Units to photograph and record the graves of fallen First World War soldiers on behalf of grieving relatives.

His powerful photos of northern France and Flanders are a haunting reminder of the horrors of war and a fascinating insight into the early work of the Imperial War Graves Commission.

The Grave Registration Units officially recorded where British soldiers were buried during World War I.

Prior to the First World War, the casualties of war were generally buried in unmarked mass graves.

Amongst the photos are shocking images of the ruins of Ypres including the cloth hall, cathedral and Menin Gate.

There are raw images of villages in northern France which were decimated by four years of fierce fighting.

The Rue de Lille in Bailleul is lined by rubble while only the shell of a shop remains in Amiens.

In one photo soldiers can be seen removing barbed wire and shells from a cemetery, while another striking image is of bodies arriving at a cemetery in a wagon.

There is the moving image of the Last Post being played at a reburial service at a cemetery in Passchendaele.

And Mr Bawtree was on hand to photograph King Albert of Belgium alongside US President Thomas Woodrow Wilson walking through Ypres in the aftermath of the war.

Ivan Bawtree was assigned to the Graves Registration Units to photograph and record the graves of fallen First World War soldiers on behalf of grieving relatives back home

Prior to the First World War, casualties were generally buried in unmarked mass graves but from 1915, The Grave Registration Units officially recorded where British soldiers were buried

German prisoners formed an 'orchestra' with violins made out of cigar boxes in this photo and played at the sombre gathering in Ypres on the Western Front in the First World War

A blanket of snow covers shell-damaged Kemmel, with the ruins of the church clearly visible in the distance in January 1919. The photos are a haunting reminder of the horrors of war

Tug-of-war at Whit Monday Sports, outside the infantry barracks. The photos include poignant images of the troops who were still living on the Western Front as well as graves of the fallen

He made two copies of each photo - one for the Graves Registration Commission and one for himself.

A cardboard box containing the negatives of the photos was passed down the family and ended up in the hands of counsellor Jeremy Gordon Smith who was inspired by them to produce a book about his great-great-uncle.

The 39-year-old, from Hampton in south west London, said: 'I've visited many of the cemeteries and memorials in northern France and around the Ypres Salient in Belgium - row upon row of headstones, provoking sombre reflection.

Ivan's colleagues Sergeant T. Comfort, Bert Haddon and Frederick Roper at the improvised darkroom Kodak House in the grounds of Chauteau de Relingue, Lillers, in 1915

The ruins of the Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium are among the poignant images taken by a photographer who documented the graves of fallen soldiers on the Western Front

GRU personnel on a gun in Ostend, Belgium. Photographer Ivan Bawtree is furthest to the right. The poignant images document the graves of fallen British soldiers during WWI

For 60 years the photos and diaries were hidden away in a cellar in Mr Bawtree's home in Clapham Lodge, Sutton, Surrey, where he lived until his death in 1979.

'I've asked myself how would it have felt to have wandered among the vast numbers of wooden crosses of recently-dug graves of young men, captured through Ivan's lens?

'The level of loss suffered by countless households across the nation, throughout Europe and beyond, is unfathomable.

Horrors of war: A lorry makes its way down the shell-damaged Rue de Lille, Bailleul, France (left) and the remnants of a ruined shop pictured in Amiens, France (right)

Ivan Bawtree is pictured casually standing next to the wreck of tank D32, named Dop Doctor. A poignant collection of images which were taken by the photographer have been published

'Unlike British military campaigns today, this was a conflict on an industrial scale that enveloped the nation and directly affected everyone.

'Ivan's writings and photographs have given me a personal window to engage with the enormous scale of loss, sacrifice and devastation of the Great War, as well as the opportunity to follow in his footsteps around the Western Front.'

At the outset of the war the British Expeditionary Force was poorly prepared for the scale of its losses and had no effective organisation for dealing with them.

Soldiers can be seen here clearing up some shells at Hooge Crater Cemetery. The poignant collection of images give an intimate look into the lives - and the graves - of WWI soldiers

Here, the Last Post is pictured at a reburial service at Passchendaele New Concentration Cemetery in Flanders. A new book features these images from the Western Front during WWI

In response to public concern about the preservation of graves, the Imperial Graves Registration Commission - which later became known as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - was established in March 1915.

Graves Registration Units became responsible for recording the burial of the dead and cemeteries.

Mr Bawtree was a 21-year-old working in the London technical department of the photography company Kodak when he volunteered for the Graves Registration Units.

Following the war, he returned to the role and throughout his life he had a close association with the Boys' Brigade, earning an MBE for his service to the organisation in 1977.

Photographing the Fallen, by Jeremy Gordon Smith, will be published by Pen & Sword on September 30 and costs £25.

This image depicts the moment that the body of a fallen soldier is found. A tin helmet can be seen on the ground. The victims of war were often buried in unmarked graves prior to WWI

Parties can be seen searching for bodies in this image. The Grave Registration Units officially recorded where British soldiers were buried during World War I and Ivan photoraphed this

Bodies can be seen here laid out on top of a GS wagon arriving at a cemetery for reburial. Ivan photographed the graves of fallen soldiers across Flanders and France during World War I