BBC Newsline

Though many bereaved families had hoped the remains of their loved ones would be returned after the war, the comradeship which developed among the soldiers themselves led to a communal wish to stay together, even in death.

Under the circumstances, it was very unlikely that Robert Kelly Pollin's body was ever coming home, but many families wanted some kind of memorial where they could grieve, as Ranald Leask from the War Graves Commission explains.

After the First World War, an operation to recover bodies and rebury them in official cemeteries began. However, many war graves has been disturbed by shelling in subsequent battles, making identification even more difficult. The thousands of soldiers who died at Passchendaele, both identified and unknown, were taken to nearby Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world.

Nic Andrews with original burial records

However, the process of recovering and identifying soldiers' remains still continues today. So is there a chance that the body of Robert Kelly Pollin could still be found and identified nearly a century after his death? The Commission's Records and Enquiries Manager, Nic Andrews, weighs up the possibilities.