Pictures of German fighter ace The Red Baron which were found at a Sussex car boot sale are now available to view online.

A total of 88 black and white negatives were discovered at Ford Market near Littlehampton, West Sussex by Barry Pickthall, owner of the PPL Photo Agency based at Walberton near Arundel.

Barry said: “This collection almost certainly came from a house clearance where the pictures had been stored away for many years.”

Barry is always looking out for additions to his Pictures of Yesteryear historic archive and was “quietly excited” when he came across the shoebox of negatives and old prints of Sussex scenes.

He said, “I didn’t know what they were. They needed cleaning up and researching.”

But he took the gamble and bought the lot for £20.

Barry said: “It was obviously a collection someone made soon after the First World War, but it was not until we looked at the negatives under a magnifying glass that we began to realise the magnitude of this find.

“It is all the more significant because July 28 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.”

Known as The Red Baron for his preference for red-painted aircraft, Baron Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was only 25 when he was killed in aerial combat.

However in his short two-year career as a fighter pilot, he became the top air ace of the war with 80 air combat victories to his credit.

Barry’s research revealed the negatives record not only Von Richthofen’s flying career, but the planes and portraits of many of his American, British, French and German adversaries and comrades.

They include Lt. Quentin Roosevelt, son of American president Theodore Roosevelt, who was shot down and killed on July 14, 1918.

The photos are available to view at www.pplmedia.com.