THROUGHOUT this year we are looking back in our archives at the way the Warrington Guardian reported on the First World War.

Warrington Soldier and his feline companion

Among the sad stories reported during the war, there were tales of hope and heroism, like an unlikely friendship detailed in an issue of the Warrington Guardian on Saturday, March 18 1916.

A Warrington native, Gunner George W.B. Barnes, who served with the Royal Field Artillery in France during the war, sent the newspaper an unlikely picture of him with a cat.

An accompanying letter from Gunner Barnes wrote: “I found this cat in a ruined house near the trenches 17 month ago, and I always have it with me. It has been in a good many battles. It always sleeps with me in the trenches.”

At the time of writing the letter Barnes, who lived at 10 Robson Street, had served at the front for 18 months and despite being wounded by a German sniper during that time did not let the cat out of his sight.