Building work has started on a visitor centre for the Somme battlefield in Thiepval Wood in the French region of Picardie.

The £1.25m centre is a joint Anglo-French project and is the first of its kind on a Great War battlefield where British soldiers fell. The centre will house a data bank allowing visitors to trace where relatives are buried or commemorated.

Enough money has been raised from private donors in to begin construction of the centre, in the shadow of Sir Edwin Lutyens’ memorial to those who died.

The centre is expected to open by next July, in time for the 88th anniversary of the battle of the Somme. The first day of the offensive was the most disastrous in the history of the British Army, claiming 19,240 British and Empire lives.

The British government has pledged nearly £400,000 for the Somme Association to help buy Thiepval Wood, where thousands of men of the 36th Ulster Division died. Details: www.thiepval.org.uk