WASHFORD artist and sculptor Rob Heard is working 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for the next 18 months in a race against time to complete an epic tribute to British soldiers who died in World War One’s bloodiest battle.

A total of 72,396 shrouded figures will be laid out in rows in London on November 11 next year to mark the centenary of Armistice Day.

Each 12-inch figure represents a British serviceman who died at the Battle of the Somme but whose body was never recovered.

And to help finance the massive task, the Shrouds of the Somme committee launched a crowd-funding campaign on Wednesday (May 10) so that members of the public can feel involved in what the committee called “an extraordinary display of remembrance”.

As previously reported in the Free Press, Rob (below)has been working on the project in his remote studio at Bardon, near Washford, virtually non-stop for three years. He estimated it will take a total of 15,000 hours to bind every new figure into a hand-stitched calico shroud.

Over a million men were killed or wounded in the Battle of the Somme – the biggest and most devastating battle of World War One.

Launching the crowdfunding appeal, the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London, Kenneth Olisa said: “Shrouds of the Somme is a very imaginative and special piece of commemorative art.

“The shrouds will be of huge significance, allowing everyone to fully understand for the first time the true scale of loss and sacrifice suffered by our country.”

Last year, Rob created 19,240 shrouded figures to represent each soldier killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. These were laid out in Exeter and Bristol to give a powerful reminder of the loss in the battle.

Now Rob is making thousands more shrouds to represent each of the 72,396 British servicemen whose bodies were never recovered from the Somme battlefields.

He said the idea for the shrouds came to him in 2013 while he was recovering from a car crash which damaged both his hands. He began thinking about military fatalities in history and how impossible it was to visualise the huge numbers involved.

Rob said:“The idea for stitching 72,000 shrouds came when a man at the display in Exeter told me that his great uncle was killed on the first day of the Somme but his body was never recovered.

“He said ‘this feels like he is back on British soil for the first time in 100 years’. That got me thinking that if anybody should come home, it should be those whose bodies weren’t recovered and with no known grave.”

As he makes the shrouds, Rob refers to a list of names of the British servicemen recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves commission and crosses off a name for each figure created.

He cuts and hand-stitches their calico shrouds. As each figure is wrapped it takes on its own unique shape.

Chairman of The Shrouds of the Somme Committee, Commodore Jake Moores said: “Rob’s work is one of the most powerful acts of remembrance I have seen throughout my military career.

“We need the public’s help to bring this important installation to London for the centenary of the end of the war. The shrouds team have chosen to raise the money through crowdfunding because it is a communal effort towards a common aim.

“The money raised will pay for the figures, the calico shrouds and associated costs with the project. By raising funds in this way, we will collectively honour the men who made the ultimate sacrifice.”

For information about crowdfunding, visit www.shroudsofthesomme.com