EN hours a day, seven days a week for the next 23 months, West Somerset artist Rob Heard will be attempting a feat he has been told is humanly impossible.
He aims to singlehandedly make a foot-long shrouded figure to represent each of the 72,246 British servicemen killed in the World War One Battle of the Somme and whose bodies were never recovered.
His deadline is November 11 2018 when the figures, placed two inches apart, will be displayed - it’s hoped in a London park – taking up space equivalent to two and a half football pitches.
“People say I’m a glutton for punishment,” said 51-year-old Rob, and it’’s hard to argue with that.
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New Year, new treasurer as food cupboard looks for volunteer trustee finance officerOnly months ago he finally finished his extraordinary three-year labour of remembrance which resulted in ‘Shrouds of the Somme’-19,240 hand-made shrouded figures representing every Allied soldier killed on the first day of the bloodiest battle in British military history.
Displayed in Exeter’s Northernhay Gardens on the anniversary of the battle and more recently at Bristol Cathedral, they have been seen by several hundred thousand people and raised massive sums for military charities.
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