Wellington had a hard word for the men who won his battles. "The scum of the earth," he called the British rank and file — and he meant it almost admiringly. They were not volunteers stirred by patriotism, he insisted, but the poorest and most desperate of society: men who enlisted to escape hunger, debt, a magistrate, or a bottle, bound to the colours for long years and held to their duty by ferocious discipline and the lash. And yet, he allowed, "it is really wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are." Out of that unpromising material the army built the steady, professional infantry that held the line in the Peninsula and at Waterloo — including the Foot Guards kneeling here.

The figure kneels to fire — musket levelled with bayonet fixed, the red coat with blue Guards facings and white lace, white cross-belts, grey trousers and black shako, the full pack and mess tin on his back. He is the front-rank kneeler of a British two-deep firing line and the foundation of a Foot Guards diorama. Stand a British 1st Foot Guard Standing Firing behind him to complete the two ranks, raise the British 1st Foot Guards Colour over the line, and for Hougoumont bring up the green-coated allies who shared the post — a Nassau Grenadier Kneeling Firing at their flank.

W. Britain model 36134. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.