A NEW online collection of thousands of images from the archive of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) is to be launched in the North-East.

The Durham County Record Office is to start the project, which will include 26,000 images, on May 7 at County Hall.

The database will be accessed from the website of the record office, www.durham. gov.uk/recordoffice

It will link to its catalogue of DLI records, which has been online since January last year.

Information accompanying the images includes names of those identified in the pictures, which should to prove invaluable to family and military historians.

The launch, which will take place at 6.45pm, will be followed by a talk by Andy Robertshaw, of the National Army Museum, and TV's Two Men in a Trench.

Tickets for the talk, entitled At the Sharp End, are free and available from the County Record Office, County Hall, Durham DH1 5UL with a stamped addressed envelope.

To mark the launch, a book of DLI photographs from the Crimean War to the final parade has been compiled by the record office and the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery.

This is to be published by County Durham Books, the publishing arm of Durham County Council, at £12.95.

It will be available in bookshops, or directly from County Durham Books, on 0191- 383 4479 after the launch.