The promise was that they would not be split up. That was the whole appeal of the Pals battalions — enlist alongside the men from your street and your workplace, and you would serve together rather than be scattered across the army. On the morning of 1 July 1916 the British Army lost more than 57,000 men, 19,240 of them dead, in the worst day in its history. The Accrington Pals went forward at Serre with about seven hundred and twenty men and lost five hundred and eighty-four of them inside twenty minutes. Accrington, Barnsley, Bradford, Leeds — eighty to ninety per cent. They had been promised they would serve together. They did.

Six figures, all British, all going forward with the bayonet fixed. The officer is out in front with his revolver and the mud is already up his legs. In a diorama it stands beside the British infantry of 1916 — the conscripts who came after these men were used up — and Kitchener, who recruited them. The German infantry of 1916 were in the trench they were walking towards.

Tradition of London model TRAD5. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Six-figure set — British infantry advancing, 1916. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.