Best in show

“On 1 July 1916 – the first day of the battle of the Somme – the British Army suffered almost 60,000 casualties. A quarter of a million had died by the time one of the bloodiest military operations ever was finally over.

When considering such awful figures, you can sometimes forget that these were all individuals.

But this poignant item helps restore a human perspective. This tunic was worn on that fateful day by Captain George Johnson of the Middlesex Regiment whose battalion was ordered to charge at the German trenches.

It’s difficult to tell just how many men were involved but I would imagine at least 600 of the group went over the top at 7.30am. By the end of the day, just 50 survived the machine-gun fire and returned unscathed.

Johnson was shot in no man’s land, receiving wounds to the chest, pelvis and right forearm but he managed to crawl back to the British lines where his tunic, as you can see, was cut away from his arm. Miraculously, both he and the tunic survived the war and Johnson lived well into his 90s.

There are two medal ribbons on the tunic. Alongside one for long service and good conduct is a South Africa medal awarded after the Boer war campaign. While the Somme was a dreadful baptism of fire for many young combatants, Johnson was already a veteran by the time he received a commission in 1915.

The tunic is part of an exhibition that examines the tactics, impact and personal experiences behind 20 key British battles from the civil war through to the current deployment in Afghanistan.

We’re not glorifying war but simply telling stories that made these historic events so notable – from the Somme, with its sheer number of casualties, to Rorke’s Drift in 1879 when one company of men successfully staged the heroic defence of a garrison against thousands of attackers.

Visitors to the gallery and our website can comment on what they see and read and vote for what they think is Britain’s Greatest Battle. The top five will be chosen in April and guest historians will present the case for each one.

This is the third of a trilogy of such exhibitions and, if the previous searches are anything to go by, there could be some surprises.

When we looked for enemy commanders last year, we were expecting the likes of Napoleon and Rommel, but we ended up with Michael Collins and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”

Matthew Thomas is online content officer at the National Army Museum

Britain’s Greatest Battle runs until 2 June in the National Army Museum’s White Space Gallery, London