Historians trace war heroes

The soldiers died in the Crimean, Zulu and Boer wars

Two historians need help in putting faces to the names of 2,000 soldiers who died in the great wars of the Victorian era.

Ken Wray and Gwilym Roberts have spent the last ten years scouring old newspapers and hundreds of letters to trace soldiers from North Staffordshire.

The men died fighting in the Crimean, Zulu and Boer wars.

The historians now need faces to go with their archive of names for a book to help people trace their family trees.

Zulu war

Mr Wray said 1,000 of the 25,000 men killed in the Zulu War were from The Potteries, in north Staffordshire.

He said another 4,000 were killed in the Boer War.

"Like everyone else, I saw the films about the Zulu War and thought the soldiers who fought were all Welshmen.

"I started researching and found a lot of them were from Staffordshire."

Mr Wray visited the Zulu battlefield to help research the project six years ago and plans to go back to South Africa in six months to research the Boer War.

He said he photographs to go with the names would help complete the project.