A ONE-OFF newspaper commemorating the centenary of Armistice goes on sale today.

The Oxford Mail and its sister paper the Oxford Times wanted to mark 100 years since the end of the First World War in as fitting way as possible.

We delved through our archives to bring to life once more some of the forgotten stories of the war.

The 80-page newspaper features tales from the front line and the home front, with particular concentration on Oxfordshire and its servicemen, many of whom served in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

The edition is priced at £1 and a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to military charities.

It will be on sale from today, Friday, November 9 and throughout next week at our usual stockists.

Editor Samantha Harman said: “Though 100 years may have passed, we felt it still incredibly important that the stories in our archives of sacrifice, of life in the trenches and of the heartbreak of families who lost their loved ones should be heard today.

“Some of the stories we uncovered are truly fascinating and bring home the impact on the county.

“There are stories of families who sent all their sons to war – five or six young men. In some cases, just one son, or none of the sons, returned.

“Many of our readers had ancestors who perished in the war, some of whom would have been in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

“Some of our readers may not even be aware they had ancestors fighting in the trenches and they may just see them mentioned in the newspaper. That may sound implausible but this happened to one of the Oxford Mail team when we were putting the issue together.

“One of my favourite discoveries was that the newspapers – at that time the Oxford Mail was the Oxford Journal Illustrated – teamed up on a Christmas campaign to send tobacco to soldiers.

“An article we found from November 1918 in the Oxford Illustrated Journal stated that the Oxford Times had been running the Tobacco Fund since Christmas 1914. As Christmas 1918 approached, the Oxford Journal Illustrated joined in.

“The reporter gave the reassurance that ‘every penny subscribed [will be] spent in ‘smokes.’’

“For a crown (5/-) readers could send a soldier a packet of cigarettes a week for five weeks.

“We wanted to be able to re-tell some of these stories, whilst raising some money for military charities. We’ve tried to create a fitting tribute to the fallen, and we hope readers find it as interesting to read as we did to produce.

“With special thanks to our nostalgia correspondent John Chipperfield, who provided much of the content included in the paper.”

Our team of reporters and photographers will be out at Remembrance events across the county on Sunday.

An update on the money raised for charities from our special edition will be published in the coming weeks.