ACTORS dressed as First World War soldiers seen wondering the streets of Aberystwyth on the centenary of the Battle of the Somme were part of a secret UK-wide memorial.

A poignant tribute to the soldiers who were killed during the bloodiest battle in human history, in which more than a million men died, was commissioned by ‘14-18 Now’ and conceived and created by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, in collaboration with Rufus Norris, director of the National Theatre.

The tribute, called We’re Here Because We’re Here and organised and rehearsed in complete secrecy, was supported locally by Aberystwyth Arts Centre and consisted of thousands of male volunteers across the UK between the age of 16 and 49.

Each participant represented a soldier who was killed, taking inspiration from tales of sightings during and after the First World War by people who believed they had seen a dead loved one.

Dressed in First World War uniforms, the men, who represented 15 of the regiments which suffered losses in the first day of the Battle, appeared on the streets between 7am and 7pm.

Jeremy Deller said: “I wanted to make a contemporary memorial to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, one that moved around the UK with an unpredictability, in which the participants, by their actions, took the memorial to the public.”

The soldiers did not speak, but at points throughout the day, they would sing the song We’re Here Because We’re Here, which was sung in the trenches during the First World War.

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online on Wednesday. And see more pictures from the Aberystwyth memorial on our photos website