The Kaiser probably never said it. On 19 August 1914 he is supposed to have ordered his army to exterminate the treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army. No such order has ever been found. It is not in the German records; one theory holds that it came from a mistranslation of a letter to von Kluck, and those records have never turned up either. What is not in doubt is what the British regulars did with it. They took the insult, kept it, and after the war called themselves the Old Contemptibles — a name handed to them by a man who may never have opened his mouth.

The same eight figures as the 1916 set — an officer, a sergeant, six privates — and the difference is on their heads. Soft service caps here, steel helmets there, and two years of war in between. These are the men the insult was aimed at: the old regular army, professionals who had joined years before there was a war to join for. In a diorama, the German infantry of 1914 are who they were facing when the Kaiser supposedly noticed them, and Kitchener is the man already building their replacements.

Tradition of London model 817. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-figure set — an officer, a sergeant and six privates, 1914. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.