It’s the 11th day of the 11th month, so here’s a bas-relief memorial tablet in Salisbury Cathedral, placed in memory of Edward Tennant, a young officer and poet killed on the Somme in 1916. It includes touching testimonies to his life and times; “when things were at their worst he would go up and down in the trenches cheering the men, when the danger was the greatest his smile was loveliest”; and “he gave his earthly life to such matter as he set great store by: the honour of his country and his home“.

Noodlers Brown 41 in fountain pen and water-brush, watercolour, A6 – 20 minutes

It was the junior officers’  job to lead the way ‘over the top’ and expose themselves to the greatest danger as an example to their men; they made easy targets in their distinctive uniforms. Some 12% of the British army’s ordinary soldiers were killed during the war, compared with 17% of its officers (BBC). I think the memorial was based on this 1915 portrait by John Singer Sargent, hence the long neck.