It is a telling thing that this set includes a surgeon, because for many soldiers he was the last man they saw. A British battalion carried its own surgeon and assistants, and after a battle the wounded were brought to him in the rear, where the work was grim and unrelenting. For a shattered arm or leg there was essentially one answer — amputation — done at speed and without any anaesthetic, since ether and chloroform lay decades in the future; a skilled surgeon took a limb in minutes, and that speed was the only mercy he could offer. Antisepsis was unknown too, so infection killed many who survived the knife. The surgeon's was the hardest and least glorious duty in the army.

The eight-figure set is the colour party and command of a line battalion — an officer, two ensigns bearing the King's Colour and the Regimental Colour (here lettered for the XLIV, the 44th Regiment), two colour sergeants with their pikes, a drummer, and the regimental surgeon. It is the headquarters of a British diorama. Form the firing line in front with the British Line Infantry, throw the kneeling square out to a flank with the British Line Infantry receiving cavalry, and set it all under Wellington at Waterloo.

Tradition of London model 706. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-figure set — an officer, two ensigns with the colours, two colour sergeants, a drummer, and a regimental surgeon, 1815. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.