NINETY years ago tomorrow the battlefields of the First World War fell silent.

The horrific slaughter, the likes of which the world had never seen before, was over and those who survived looked forward to peace and returning home to their families and communities.

And now the contents of a wallet belonging to a First World War soldier from Halifax have been given to the Courier. It gives us a rare insight into life in the trenches and beyond.

The battered leather wallet belonged to Charles Farrar, who served in the Machine Gun Corps from 1917.

In it, there are precious sepia photographs, birth and marriage certificates, army documents and even raffle tickets.

Tony Hollingsworth, 76, of Woodman Avenue, Elland, was given the memorabilia by a woman who cared for Mr Farrar until he died.

She thought he could use the collection in his design work.

He said: "I had a shop in Westgate called Artistic Exposure. It was sometime in the 1990s when the lady gave me the wallet.

"I found it when I was tidying up and thought it would be nice for people to see with Armistice Day coming up."

The well-worn documents and pictures tell a lot about Mr Farrar.
His birth certificate shows he was born in Manchester on February 8, 1889. His ripped marriage certificate states that he married 24-year-old Lillie Rayner, of St Augustine's Terrace, Halifax, at Halifax Parish Church on April 26, 1911. His profession was given as a horsekeeper but he went on to become a driver in the armed forces.

After their wedding the pair lived in Gibbet Street for a time and the will inside Mr Farrar's soldier's pay book reads: "In the event of my death I leave everything to my wife Lillie Farrar, 100 Gibbet Street, Halifax, Yorks."

The couple are brought to life in a number of photographs packed inside the wallet including pictures of a uniformed soldier, which Mr Hollings-worth believes to be Mr Farrar, and a woman in a white dress, presumably Mrs Farrar. There are also other pictures such as shots of two small children, a school photograph dated May 1927, a group of people on an open-top vehicle and Mr Farrar on a motorbike.

And there were images from his time abroad with the Scottish T F Reserve Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment.

These include two shots of a bridge in Tourcoing, France, both before and after it was blown up. His scribblings on the back read: "As it should be on this one" followed by "The same bridge blown down". He also had a picture of the Clothhall in Ypres, Belgium, after an attack.
And tucked deep inside the wallet was a prayer card.

Mr Farrar's army documents show he signed up for duty on Decem-ber 11, 1915, was assess-ed as medically "fit for general service" on March 15, 1917, and enlisted on August 17, 1917, aged 28.

His soldier's pay book details the months he spent in the battlefields with three stints in a convalescent depot.

He was demobbed at Victoria Station on March 27, 1919.

Alongside the reams of information are documents relating to Mr Farrar's pension, Christ-mas wishes from the Halifax Courier Fund in 1917 and a taped-up, handwritten copy of Prayer of a Horse.

The final piece of this collection is a bill for the ex-soldier's funeral, dated May 4, 1959. It cost £52 13s 6d.