A regional daily journalist and historian fears he may have failed in his bid to restore regimental memorabilia to a church to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

Peter Chapman recently appealed to Grimsby Telegraph readers to help him trace the regimental colours of the 10th Battalion of The Lincolnshire Regiment, known commonly as the Grimsby Chums.

The Chums were one of the pals battalions of the First World War founded by Lord Kitchener to allow friends, neighbours and work colleagues to sign up and fight together.

In total, the battalion suffered 502 casualties on the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916.

It is the custom in England that regimental colours, a traditional rallying point for troops, should be placed in either the county’s cathedral or the principle parish churches.

But the Chums’ colours had been removed from St James’ Church, Grimsby, along with those of the 5th (Territorial) Battalion of the same regiment, pictured below, on the instruction of a former rector, Canon Michael Hunter.

In a column on his search for the lost memorabilia, Peter wrote: “It is suggested to me they have been thrown away. I also hear a grotesque suggestion that an attempt was made to have them ‘dry-cleaned’. If this had happened they would probably have disintegrated.

“In these colours reside the memory of the units and their endeavour. Martial thoughts are secondary. They embody sacrifice pro patria.

“We barely glance at them. But they are there, high in the chancels throughout Britain.

“But not in Grimsby. I hope we shall hear more of them. But I fear not.”