The 43rd Regiment of Foot — later styled the 43rd (Monmouthshire) Light Infantry — was a British line regiment that had been on active service almost continuously since its formation in 1741. By 1780 the regiment was fighting in America, having moved south with Cornwallis after the New York and Philadelphia campaigns. At Yorktown in 1781 the 43rd held the advanced redoubt on the left flank of the British position, took significant casualties from American and French artillery, and was finally forced into the general surrender on October 19. Regimental tradition maintains that the King's and regimental colours of the 43rd were not actually present at the surrender — that the colours had been sent ahead to a depot in New York for safekeeping when Cornwallis's force moved south, and that the colours formally surrendered at Yorktown were not in fact theirs. Whether the story is literal truth or regimental pride preserving an honorable narrative is one of the small unresolved questions of the war.

This figure shows an ensign of the 43rd Regiment of Foot in dress uniform, bearing the King's Colours — the Union Flag of pre-1801 design (cross of St. George quartered with the cross of St. Andrew, before St. Patrick's cross was added at the 1801 Act of Union with Ireland) with the regiment's device in the centre. He wears the British line infantry dress of the late 1770s: scarlet coat with white facings, white waistcoat and breeches, white cross-belts, black knee gaiters, tricorne worn brim-up. The ensign was the junior commissioned officer of the company — usually a young man in his late teens or early twenties — responsible for carrying the colours into battle, which made him a target. He pairs with the Continental Line Ensign with Flag (the American counterpart from across the line),  Continental Line kneeling firing soldier (the kind of man who would have been firing at his unit), and the broader American Revolution & Federal Era collection.

1/30 scale (60mm), matte-painted, single figure boxed. Catalog number 16209. As with the rest of the W. Britain modern range, the painting is photographic-quality detail intended to read well in dioramas and display cases.