The bag on his chest is the tell. Before the Small Box Respirator, British troops had the PH Gas Helmet — a flannel hood soaked in chemicals and tucked into the collar of your shirt. From late 1916 they had this instead: a rubberised facepiece, a hose, and a tinplate canister of charcoal and lime that would stop chlorine and phosgene. It lived in a haversack, and where a man carried that haversack told you where he was. On the march it rode on his back, stowed above the valise. In the line it came round to the chest — what the manuals called the alert position — so the mask could be on his face in seconds. His is on his chest.

And the stick, which no regulation required. It marked him as an officer, and that is the whole of its function. The rest of him tells the same story: rank badges on the cuffs, a revolver instead of a rifle, breeches and leather leggings. In a diorama, stand him in a trench section with the kneeling officer further down the line, both waiting on the same order. Across the wire, the German stormtrooper carries his gas canister slung on his chest for exactly the same reason this man does.

W. Britain model 23075. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single standing figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Supplied in a clamshell pack.