WASHFORD sculptor Rob Heard was this week in a race against the clock to finish a massive two-year World War One commemoration project to be visited by the Royal Family in just over three weeks’ time.

Rob’s Shrouds of the Somme is an extraordinary labour of remembrance which occupies him up to 15 hours a day seven days a week.

It involves 72,369 foot-high hand-made shrouded figures representing every UK serviceman killed at the Battle of the Somme who has no known grave.

The figures will be transported in four articulated lorries to London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. They will be displayed in an area the size of nearly two football pitches from November 8 to 18.

The Princess Royal, members of her family, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan will be among VIP visitors.

Now Rob, 52, a father of three, is working around the clock to finish the last 4,000 shrouds in time for the event’s opening.

“It means creating at least 200 figures a day but I have no option and I am determined to do it,” he said.

Rob speaks exclusively to the Free Press in this week’s paper.