During his time as an archaeology student at Bristol University, Joe Woodward became enthralled by the tragic stories of those students and staff who had, generations earlier, left the university behind to fight in World War I, and never returned.

The plaques in the Wills Memorial Building record their names in long, sombre lists, but Joe wanted to get to know Bristol University's "lost generation" a little more personally.

Eventually, he decided to write his MA dissertation on the university's war dead.

But there was one man in particular who seemed to be calling back to Joe, down through the decades. For some reason the story of Lieutenant William John Langford – known as Jack – resounded with Joe more than any of the others.

Raised in Redland, Jack had been a former Bristol Grammar School boy, a keen rugby player and cricketer, who was quick to sign up at the start of the war, despite having only recently started his academic career at the university, where he was studying dentistry.

He would go on to lose his life at the bloody Battle of Fromelles in 1916 at the age of 24. His body was never recovered.

Joe graduated in 2004, but the story of Jack Langford remained fresh in his mind. He would often spare a thought for the fallen hero, especially as Joe went on to Sandhurst after university – serving as a cavalry officer for a short time, before his military career was cut short by a shoulder injury.

Now a journalist based in Bath, the 26-year-old is the editor of a glossy lifestyle magazine. But he still has a keen interest in World War I, and occasionally visits northern France to lead battlefield tours for British tourists.

But Joe's mind returned to Jack Langford earlier this month, when he heard about work being carried out by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to exhume the bodies of 400 Allied soldiers buried in a mass grave at Fromelles.

They plan to rebury the men in a new military cemetery – the first Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery to be built in more than half a century.

"But first they need to try to identify the remains," Joe explains. "Back then troops wore only one dog-tag around their necks, and these would have been removed by the Germans who buried the bodies in order that the families of the Allied dead could be informed.

"These days, they hope to be able to identify the bodies by taking samples of DNA from relatives of those who fought at the battle and comparing it to DNA taken from the soldiers' remains," Joe explains.

"When I heard about this on the news last week I sat up in my seat, because I realised that the part of the battlefield where the mass grave was found is exactly the area where Jack Langford was last seen going into battle, leading the machine gun corps towards the German lines at the very start of the action.

"It dawned on me that Jack may well be one of the 400 bodies in the mass grave."

Jack couldn't have known the significance of one of the soldiers he faced across the battlefield. It is believed that Adolf Hitler fought in the action. At the time, he was a 27-year-old corporal and a message runner in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, which was defending the Sugar Loaf salient – the exact part of the battlefield where Jack was last seen.

But in order to find Jack, Joe first needs to find one of Jack's relatives in order to compare the DNA.

"I'm desperately hoping that there will still be members of the Langford family living in Bristol who will be able to come forward, and then hopefully help us to finally identify Jack's body."

If you think you may be related to Lieutenant William John Langford or any of the Bristol soldiers listed, contact David Clensy on 0117 9343344 or email d.clensy@bepp.co.uk

In 2007, a non-invasive geophysical survey, commissioned by the Australian government, was conducted by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Department (GUARD). The survey gave readings consistent with pits containing the remains of hundreds of soldiers. Work began earlier this month on exhuming the bodies from the mass grave.

"It's good to know that the 400 men will eventually be laid to rest in individual graves in the first new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery to be built since the 1940s," Joe says. "And personally, I'm really hoping that we will be able to prove that some of Bristol's lost heroes will be among those finally laid to rest.