With our experts Melanie Backe-Hansen & Graham Caldwell

I’d like to identify the soldiers in these photographs

I have two photographs belonging to my late parents’ effects, neither of which have any information on their reverse, but must have been important to them. Photo 1 is two soldiers who might be father and son. Photo 2 is a man in uniform, who I wonder might be the same young man seated in Photo 1.

I’m trying to determine the identity of the soldiers to be able to fit them to my family tree (regiment, dates, ages, locations etc).

I do know that my grandfather, born 1886, was in the 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment from 1904-07, then again briefly 1914-15. Most of my ancestors were from Lancashire.

James Rigby

Photo No.1 The Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) The British Lion gilded-metal collar badge was introduced in 1890 identifying the two private soldiers to the Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) as it was known between 1881 and 1921. They wear the scarlet (Indian pattern) foreign-service frocks (coats) and mounted infantry khaki breeches and puttees.

• The standing soldier wears an inverted good conduct service chevron on his lower left arm for between two and five years’ service.

• The trefoil knot cuffs were worn by regular soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions.

• No campaign medals tell us that the pair did not serve during the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

• The ‘arm around the shoulder’ pose is symbolic and suggests they may be related. Ignoring the fashionable moustache, I would judge the age of the standing soldier between late 20s and early 30s. The seated soldier looks younger, between the minimum joining age of 17 to 25.

• The photo location is obliterated, but the visible end letters ‘ling’ or ‘eling’ suggests Darjeeling in West Bengal India. The 1st Battalion, The Kings Own (Royal