An artist has created thousands of shrouded figures to honour British soldiers whose bodies were never found after the Battle of the Somme.
Rob Heard has crafted 72,396 of the 12-inch plastic figures, all wrapped in a calico shroud to symbolise the soldiers who fell in the 1916 battle.
The sombre Shrouds of the Somme installation will be put on display across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London as Britain marks the centenary of the First World War.
Rob Heard has crafted 72,396 of the 12-inch plastic figures, all wrapped in a calico shroud to symbolise soldiers who fell in the 1916 battle
The sombre Shrouds of the Somme installation will be put on display across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London
Each figure represents a serviceman listed on the Thiepval Memorial in France, which commemorates those whose bodies were lost.
The figures will be sold afterwards, with profits going to the Armed Forces charity SSAFA and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Sunday Express reported.
Mr Heard, 53, worked 18 hours a day for five years to make every shroud by hand – almost bankrupting his family to finish what he described as a ‘calling.’
He said he would never have completed the project if it hadn’t been for the support of his wife Karina and their daughters Lily, 17, Rose, 15, and Daisy, 14.
Each figure represents one of the thousands of servicemen listed on the Thiepval Memorial in France
Mr Heard began making the plastic figures five years ago following a car accident which stopped him sculpting ‘Bough Houses’
‘They have been so supportive and understanding of the things I have not been able tot do with them, let alone the financial hardship,’ he said.
Mr Heard, from Watchet in Somerset, was inspired to take on the challenge after he suffered arm and wrist injuries in a car accident in 2013.
The artist, who formerly worked as a sculptor, was thus unable to continue making wood ‘Bough House’ sculptures, and decided to take a difference direction.
He said: ‘I was in a dark place and things were not going well post-surgery. I was watching the guys coming back from Afghanistan with legs and arms missing and I thought, “Come on, get a grip, there are people worse off than me”‘
He initially made 19,240 of the figures for an installation at Exeter Cathedral commemorating those lost of the first day of the Somme
The figures will be sold afterwards, with profits going to the Armed Forces charity SSAFA and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The figures have been on display before at Exeter Cathedral – but this time only 19,240 were installed to remember those who were killed on the first day of the Somme on July 1, 1916.
He said: ‘A man said his great uncle had been killed on the first day of the battle and because his body was never found, this was the first time he had been laid to rest on British soil for 100 years.’
Mr Heard said this chance conversation convinced him to keep going as knew he couldn’t leave anyone on the Thiepval Memorial out.
The Shrouds of the Somme installation will remain on display at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from Thursday, November 8 until November 18.