Manchester City Battalions Book of Honour IDs

[Lone Tree]

I hope this post is of interest to members of the group and something a little bit different from traditional research.

During the covid lock-downs I started experimenting with facial recognition software and testing whether it could be used to identify faces in the City Battalions Book of Honour. I was amazed by the output and the accuracy of the trials. This then led to the development of a systematic approach and an identification project. The project has progressed with the support of admins Pete and Tim and others.

The identifications are all objective. The project follows the science. There are no anecdotal or subjective "eye-in" identifications.

The project is currently at a half-way point. A first pass of the of the 16th-19th (1st-4th City) Battalions has been completed and 970 soldiers have been identified by name and a further 324 partially identified (1of2, 1of3 etc).

Whilst there is still a long way to go, the project is sufficiently progressed to publish the findings to date via the website www.manchesterpals.co.uk Hopefully many more identifications can be made with the support of this group.

The aim of the project is to provide a free photographic resource for all, to support research and preserve the memory of the pals.

The website has a public area, so please feel to have a look round and provide feedback. The identifications are in a members area that requires email verification for access, but again everyone is welcome to visit.

If you are able to support the project with 'source' photos of known pals then please get in touch via this post or the website.

[pete th]

I fully endorse this project. Colin has applied new technology to solve a problem that many of us have wrestled with over the years. The City Battalion book contains photos of thousands of men and lists their names, however the photos and names don't correlate.

This is an extremely valuable project to which Colin has given many many hours to get this point. It is indeed a labour of love, as his grandfather served with the Pals.

Please visit Colin's free to use site and see for yourselves and if you have any photos of Manchester Pals please share them with him to help him continue the project.