Rare picture of Swindon Town Juniors from 1914 - do you recognise them?

There is just one problem - he doesn’t know much about it at all.

Mr Harding's high-quality black and white postcard photograph appears to contain a dozen young boys and a manager sat on a football pitch - though the names of these particular people, the location of the image, and the exact date it was taken remain a mystery.

An educational guess would suggest July 1914 while the same method would argue the location was the County Ground pitch - a stadium the club has occupied almost since its inception in 1879.

The only factor that is clear is that the team is named Swindon Town Juniors, as they were known at the time.

The old leather ball in front of the boy in the centre of the bottom row has clearly got paint on it which reads: “S.T.J 1914-15.”

Mr Harding suggested the alarmingly-high length of the grass in the photo would likely mean it was taken prior to the season starting but before the beginning of WWI - known to be July 28, 1914.

With the Great War not far away, some of the boys in the photo may well have signed up to fight for their country and not been in the area to play.

Mr Harding also said he believed the local junior leagues (Swindon and District and Borough League) were cancelled as many clubs were no longer able to field teams due to the amount of young men who had signed up.

Though Mr Harding accepts it is pretty unlikely, the long-standing Town fan got in contact with the Adver to ask if any of our readers would be able to identify any of the boys in this photo or give any information that might lead to this hazy picture becoming slightly clearer.

Any names of grandparents, great-grandparents or links from family trees of males who played for a Swindon Town Juniors side may help paint a clearer picture.

If you know who any of the boys are or have any information on the aforementioned photo, please email sport@swindonadvertiser.co.uk with the subject line: “Swindon Town Juniors”.