More than 1,000 men killed in the Battle of the Somme have been honoured with a new memorial thanks to a regional daily.

The Bradford Telegraph & Argus launched its Honour The Pals fundraising appeal two years ago in partnership with Bradford Council to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

On Saturday, 100 years after the end of the battle, the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Geoff Reid, was at the site of the bloody conflict in France to unveil a memorial stone dedicated to the Bradford Pals and other men from the district who lost their lives there.

About 1,400 members of The Bradford Pals – members of the 16th and 18th West Yorkshire Regiment – attacked the enemy lines in front of the town of Serre on 1 July 1916, and 1,017 lost their lives on that day alone.

T&A editor Perry Austin-Clarke said: “Hundreds of Bradfordians donated money to the Honour the Pals appeal to provide this memorial and we are very proud to have played a part in honouring the sacrifice of those local young men who lost their lives in the killing fields of France.

“The stone comes from the same seam of rock from which much of Victorian Bradford was built, and the Union Flag covering the stone flew above the Mechanics Institute where young men from the city enlisted in the Bradford Battalion.

“Many of these men now lie in cemeteries and fields nearby where the stone has been erected but more than half the men who perished have no known grave.”

The T&A’s features editor, Emma Clayton, who had written a 12-page supplement previewing the stone’s unveiling, represented the newspaper at the event and ran a live blog throughout the proceedings, as well as providing in-depth coverage for Monday’s edition.

She said: “It was a deeply moving ceremony and the new memorial will forever be a piece of the Pals’ home on a painfully poignant site.”