The series, Finding the Fallen offers incredible insight into the Great War and life in the trenches, what is it like when you are working at an old battle site?

I am an historian rather than an archaeologist and I tend to look at battles whilst in a warm and comfortable office using documents, books and photographs. Being on an archaeological site means that you are out of doors, exposed to wind, rain and extremes of temperature; in these circumstances you can gain unexpected insights into soldier’s lives in the trenches. The shelter that a trench offers against biting wind and driving rain, what it is like to have wet, cold feet for hours at a time and the luxury of a hot drink when you are numbed and fed up. Other insights can be simple discoveries such as the remains of a soldier’s meal when you find discarded ration tins or a spoon dropped by a soldier who never found it again. This is history close up and finds can range from toilets to ammunition, but all give more information about the conflict.

You manage to identify a number of soldiers from the battlefields in the series, how does it feel when you can finally lay a soldier to rest?

Getting the telephone call from a colleague to say that a set of remains which came out of the ground months before has been conclusively identified is a wonderful experience. It means that the project has been a complete success and that the painstaking care of the archaeologists, forensic scientists, conservators and historians has been worthwhile. At a personal level it also means that, with luck, a family will receive a call to say that a long-lost relative has been found and will be buried in a military cemetery.

What was your most interesting find from the battle site digs during the series?

As the grandson of a private soldier who was wounded three times in his military career and made a full recovery each time I have a personal interest in the medical services in the Great War. So, during the excavation at Beaumont Hamel, when we discovered first a button of the Royal Army Medical Corps and then a broken thermometer and iodine ampoules, it told me that we were close to a medical post, probably used on 1st July 1916, the first day of the battle of the Somme. Sadly we did not find the location of the aid post, but I was able to discover the identity of the doctor working at that spot during the battle. He was Captain Wamsley, a Methodist missionary who had been working in China when the war started. In a letter written to his family he describes not being able to wash his hands for 48 hours and having to treat the wounded for 30 hours straight before he could rest. This combination of finds and a personal story will be a feature of the project I will never forget.

How do you preserve finds that have been buried in the ground for over 90 years?

Some objects, such as those made from metal, are quite stable. Little has to be done to prevent corrosion, just dry them out slowly and coat them with a preservative. Wood, leather and fabric items are far more difficult to deal with. This is why we work with the Department of Conservation Sciences at University College London. The students and staff here have done a wonderful job to tease out details from all manner of heavily corroded or decayed artefacts.

What are the most useful personal items for identification of a soldier?

We have identified two German soldiers from the information on their metal identification tags and always look for badges in metal or fabric that identify the regiment of the wearer. To actually identify an individual requires an item, such as a watch, which has the owner’s name plus other evidence which indicates that this was not being carried by someone other than the owner. We are increasingly relying on paper. In many cases soil conditions mean that pay books, letters and postcards survive in the owner’s pockets. These are impossible to read when found, but in the UCL laboratory these provide all manner of information, which can be cross-checked against the wearer’s uniform details. Critically it is unlikely that this type of item would be stolen although one German officer was identified from his bank book!