Heart-melting love letters from First World War soldiers in Passchendaele to their sweethearts back home revealed after 100 years

HEARTFELT love letters written from First World War soldiers at the Battle of Passchendaele have been released one hundred years after the fight.

Descendants of soldiers who were killed in the battle, fought near the Belgian city of Ypres between July 31 and November 10 1917, have made the keepsakes public to mark the centenary commemorations.

They include letters from Private Charles Snelling to his wife Alice and daughters, and a photograph of Alice carried by Charles, discovered by chance in a wood in Belgium months after he was killed in action.

The mementos were sent home by the Soldiers Christian Association who found it after the Battle of Passchendaele, with a note saying "I am very sorry to say I could not find the owner of the photos. I cannot say if he has been wounded or killed".

Private Snelling's grandson Bob, from Surrey, also has a lace-embroidered postcard and a letter from Charles, who served in the City of London regiment, before Passchendaele commenced when he was "merry and bright".

He wrote "when this little picnic is finished we will have the old times over again making up for these months of parting", he told his wife, urging her to be carry on as if he was at home and not to think of tomorrow.

In a final postcard dated August 14, the day before he was killed in an attack on Glencorse Wood, during the battle, he wrote "I am quite well. Letter follows at first opportunity".

Tragically after receiving that postcard, Alice enquired about his safety and was told he was missing.

In October, the news reached her that he was dead.

Edward Woolley, known as Ted, wrote to his sister asking her to lie to a girl who had jilted him, in a letter now kept by his niece Ann Phillip, in Frome, Somerset.

He wrote: "I am glad you told me that you met Bessie, and I think she is sorry now she throwed me up, but I am glad and if you see her again tell her I have got another girl whether I have got one or not."

His brothers survived the war but he died on August 22 1917. His name appears on the memorial to the missing in Tyne Cot cemetery alongside 35,000 others who also have no known grave.