Forgotten documents honouring World War One soldiers from Aberdeenshire have been unearthed from the back of an old church cupboard after more than 90 years.
Reverend Brian Dingwall discovered the roll of honour along with other paperwork under the pulpit during a clear out at Lumsden Church, near Alford.
Most of the papers had to be thrown out because they were so damp but Mr Dingwall managed to save some of them.
And when they dried out he discovered that they were a collection of short biographies and photographs of local men who had served during the first world war.
The minister has now gifted the roll to Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives for safe storage.
However, copies will be presented to the church in Lumsden tomorrow as well as Lumsden Primary School as part of this year’s remembrance commemorations.
Mr Dingwall said: “We did not even know there was a cupboard there, I don’t think it had been opened since the 1920s.
“When we opened the cupboard up, it had a lot of books, manuscripts and music all of which were very damp and we had to bin a lot of it.
“But in amongst all this there was a lump of black sodden cardboard, which was going into the skip, then I remembered that as a child, when my parents were abroad as missionaries, I had a photograph album of the same size made of cardboard.
“So we took it to the manse and three months later it was dry enough to open and we found this roll of honour that nobody seemed to know existed.
“I was very fortunate I still had some members in their late 80s and early 90s and they could remember one person who had lost a leg and there was someone who had opened up a shoemakers shop after he was injured.”
Mr Dingwall believes the photograph album would have been compiled between 1919 and 1922 before it was put on display in the kirk then stored away in the cupboard and forgotten about.
The church will be presented with a copy of the roll of honour at the Service of Remembrance at the Lumsden War Memorial tomorrow.
Mr Dingwall added: “One of the things we discovered was that there were still quite a few of the families around so they will be able to see their photographs again.
“It will also mean the children will be able to connect the names on the war memorial to the photographs and see that these people had lives.”