STANDING proudly in a Union uniform, the young man in this faded photograph is thought to be one of 200,000 English men who fought in the American Civil War.

The image, bought at a London ephemera fair some years ago, shows a young man dressed in the clothing worn by soliders during the period of the war, from 1861-65.

Michael Hammerson, who is working on a project to locate the graves of American Civil War veterans buried in Britain, contacted Turning Back The Clock because the unidentified photograph shows that it was taken by a Mr Bevan in Lowestoft.

Mr Hammerson said that of the English men who fought in the war, as many as 10,000 have yet to be identified and there are no official lists of those who fought in the war and returned.

He said: 'Some years ago, I found this carte de visite photograph in London.

'The subject seems, with very little doubt, to be a teenager dressed in Union uniform and therefore to date from the period of the war.

'The photographer was a Mr Bevan, of Lowestoft. As far as I can ascertain, there is no Lowestoft in the United States, suggesting that the photograph was produced in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

'But whether it was taken there, on the soldier's return from the war with his uniform still in his possession, or copied from a photograph of him taken while in America, I cannot tell.'

n Do you recognise the young man in the photograph? Did your ancestors fight in the American Civil War, or do you know of any local veterans' graves?

You can contact Turning Back The Clock at The Journal, 147 London Road North, Lowestoft, NR32 1NB or email hayley.mace@archant.co.uk