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Chinese Labour Corps. 1917 the men bathing in the sea at Weihei, China before sailing for World War I, France, The Western Front. Weihei or Wei-Hai-Wei, was a British-leased territory from which recruits of Chinese peasants joined the CLC without breaking China's official neutrality that was in place at the time. THESE NEWLY colourised images bring to life the important work of the Chinese Labour Corps whose WW1 efforts on behalf of Great Britain have been largely forgotten. As the hit Netflix show All Quiet On The Western Front reminds us of the deadly nature of this most history-changing war of 1914-18, these images have come to light which were held in a family achieve by the descendants of Lieutenant Hawkings, discovered by Hawkings’ grandson in personal archives in 2014, showing the brave Chinese workers, 3,000 of which it is known were killed in WW1, but unofficial estimates go up to 20,000 dead. Lieutenant Hawkings OBE was a businessman living and working in China before WWI and who captured these images while serving in the Western Front, near the Somme. One image shows two members of the Chinese Labour Corps dismantling Time Rockets in France after the end of WWI. Another image shows a man showing off his athletic abilities to the 103 Skilled Trades Company of Noyelles in France 1918. The Chinese Labour Corps were a force of workers, recruited by the British government, to support troops in WWI by performing manual labour. Between the British and French forces, 140,000 men served before the end of the war, most of these men later being repatriated to China between 1918 and 1920. The Chinese volunteers came through British Weihaiwei, now the north-eastern coast of China. China was officially neutral at this stage, the British Weihaiwei being used as a recruiting ground for China to support Britain and France without acting illegally. A colourised image shows a troop of men smiling at the camera and pulling faces in 1918, the image taken by Lieutenant Hawkings. Chinese men were assigned support tasks, often dangerously close to the front line, including machine repair, care of animals and cooking. After the war, they were instructed to clear the battlefield, bury the dead and deal with unexploaded shells. During the period of three years, between 1917 to 1920, it is estimated that 3,000 men died with many injured due to this work, however the real number is thought to be closer to 20,000, aided by the 1918 flu pandemic. mediadrumimages/Topfoto