BOROUGH victims of the Battles of the Somme will be commemorated on Blackburn with Darwen’s Cotton Town website – thanks to National Lottery cash.

The Reveille remembrance project, launched this month, aims to re-awaken memories of local soldiers who were lost on the battlefields of France during the First World War.

It has been paid for by a £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund First World War: Then and Now grant.

The library project’s initial purpose is conserving the records of those who perished on the Somme between 1915 and 1918 and who have no known grave. They are featured on the Thiepval memorial to the missing of the Somme in Picardy, France.

The Blackburn with Darwen soldiers will each be given virtual headstones on the library website, Cotton Town. Details of their lives will be digitised with the help of a team of volunteers. The project will eventually conserve more records.

Coun Trevor Maxfield the borough’s Armed Forces Champion, said: “Project Reveille will help to preserve the borough’s memories of World War 1, and ensure that the sacrifices of our servicemen and commun-ities are commemorated and remembered by future generations.”

Blackburn Library Service is appealing for volunteers to help with the research, the preparation of records and hosting the reminiscence events to be held in all local libraries and at the museum.

It wants local people to share family memories of the First World War of both battle and on the home front.