SITTING with a straight back and determined stare at the camera, this little terrier looks as resolute as his master, a corporal with the Worcestershire Regiment in 1917.

The year is 1917 and the pair were possibly having their photograph taken before departing for the trenches of World War I.

Some dogs were used as pets or mascots that were a comfort to soldiers amidst the torment of life in the trenches.

Terriers such as this one were also useful good at removing rats and other pests, making life slightly more bearable.

The name of the corporal and his little companion is unknown.

Libby Hall, aged 73, who has spent four decades collecting dog photos, stumbled on it, along with dozens more, on a market stall.

She snapped them up not only because she is a dog fanatic but because she feared they were destined for the skip if no one bought them.

Mrs Hall, of Hackney, east London, is exhibiting the images at the Bishopsgate Institute, Spitalfields, as a show entitled Dogs of the First World War.

She said: "My collecting began by chance.

"I was a press photographer and discovered that a local junk shop doing house clearances was simply throwing away old photographs.

"I persuaded them to let me have them, really just to save them from the dustbin.

"I have lived with dogs all my life and began to be intrigued by the photographs that had dogs in them."

Entry is free to the exhibition and it runs until June 26.

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