A WESTBURY artist’s portraits of three Wiltshire soldiers who served and died during the battle of Gallipoli will be on show at the Wylye Valley Arts Trail this weekend.

Helen Chester, of Ludlow Close, has been working on her project Everyday Tommy for more than a year looking at the history of soldiers who fought in the Great War and painting portraits of them.

Sergeant Walter Ash, 27, from Holt, Sergeant Stuart Pearce, 37, from Westbury and Private Joseph Dew, 21, also from Westbury, all served in the Wiltshire Regiment and died on August 10, 1915, at the Battle of Chunuk Bair Ridge, Gallipoli.

Their stories caught the attention and imagination of Mrs Chester, who is planning to show the three portraits among others later this year at her own exhibition in Westbury.

The 40-year-old said: “I started the project because my great-grandad Herbert Kerley was killed at Mons, France, on August 26, 1914, while serving as a private for the Somerset Light Infantry.

“I’d always been fascinated by history and the thought that all was left of these people who died was a photo, I liked the idea of taking a black and white photograph of someone and telling a bit more about them with a portrait.

“I asked people to come forward with pictures of their relatives who had died during the war and I started hearing the same story from three separate families.

“I thought it was really emotive and incredible so did portraits of them and I said I would give people a sneak peak of the portraits at the exhibition because it is the centenary of Gallipoli this year.”

Taking place on May 23 for the eighth time, the nine-day exhibition welcomes all concepts of art is one of the largest events in the country.

Mrs Chester, who studied fine art at Cardiff University, will be attending the exhibition for a second time and is hopeful that people will be receptive towards her portraits.

“I had a family who I was speaking with who didn’t know I was going to do the portrait so that was a nice surprise for them and for one I had to do a portrait from just a picture in a locket,” she added.

“I wanted the portraits to take a reference from the soldier's lives or things in the area they grew up in, so for example Stuart Pearce’s portrait, the design in the background I’ve taken from the panes of glass at the Laverton Institute and other ones have the White Horse in the background."