NO-ONE can say for sure just how many men were lost on either side at the Battle of Passchendaele one hundred years ago.

But local historian Shirley Penman has spent hours researching the names of the men from the Ribble Valley who were killed in the conflict, trawling through old newspapers and tracking down church and war memorials.

She found 86 names and they were among those remembered at a special centenary service at the Tyne Cot cemetery in Zonnebeke, Belgium, the largest Commonwealth military burial site in the world.

Eric Nolan from Wilpshire, whose grandfather James Dunne, fought in and survived the battle and the war, laid a poppy wreath in their honour.

Among those men was Private Fred Aspin, who was brought up in Blackburn Orphanage and was killed at the age of 36 on the first day of the Battle of Menin Road in September, 1917.

Private Robert Ainsworth, 39, of the 7th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment was killed on the very first day of Passchendaele and, with no known grave, is remembered on the Menin Gate.

He fought during the Boer War with the same regiment, gaining several decorations for valour and re-enlisted in September 1914.

He lived in Hayhurst Street, Clitheroe and worked at Bankfield Quarries. He is named on the St James Church Memorial and in the Book of Remembrance at St Mary Magdalene Church, both in Clitheroe.

Private Robert William Thornber, from Bolton by Bowland also lost his life on the very first day, killed by a sniper, as was Private John Carr, of Newby Cottage, Rimington, who died aged 32, after being hit in the arm by a bullet which then entered his chest.

Lance/Corporal Roy Bleazard, of Newton-in Bowland, was serving in A company, the 10th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment when he was killed in action in October and is buried in Oxford Road Cemetery, Ypres, while William Crockett, of Ramsgreave Road, Wilpshire, was just 19 when he was killed, serving with the 2nd/4th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

He is remembered on the Tyne Cot memorial, as is another 19-year-old, Private John Wilkinson, again of Wilpshire, who was serving with the 1st Battalion, ELR. The two were killed within six days of each other.

* Shirley has also uncovered the story of a Ribble Valley man, who emigrated to Australia in 1912, but returned to fight in WWI, and is one of the lost of Fromelles.

Henry Gardner who was born at Bishop’s House, Dunsop Bridge in 1886, enlisted in New South Wales in 1915 with D Company, 30th Battalion, Australian Infantry, Australian Invasion Force.

He left Sydney on board the Australian Troopship 'Beltana' and, with the British Expeditionary Force, arrived in Marseille in June, 1916.

Just a month later, he was killed in action by a German shell and became one of the lost of Fromelles.

Although recent excavations at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles has found missing Australian soldiers, it is not thought Henry is one of those identified.