Hard to imagine the horrors of the First World War on a sunny July afternoon in the beautiful Northernhay Gardens in Exeter.
The current SSAFA exhibition “Lost Lives” certainly brings home the scale of the tragedy of this war. The exhibit has one shrouded figure to represent each of the 1561 days of the war, and each by each figure is a small plaque showing the number lost on that day.
On this weekend 6th to 8th July hundreds of men were lost each year. For example in 1915, 802 men lost their lives between the 6th and 8th July, and in 1918 it was 1081 in the same period.
Each little shrouded figure was stitched by artist Rob Heard.
