At the conclusion of the Service to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, HRH The Duke of Kent was escorted into the Memorial Room of the Ulster Memorial Tower by Lord Brookeborough KG, KStJ and Col W R H Charley OBE. Here he accepted on behalf of the Somme Association, a series of paintings entitled ‘You brought life into Death’ from Belfast artist R D Beattie. The paintings depict real life soldiers who were killed at the Battle of the Somme, and were the result of extensive research by the artist Robert Beattie. At the time Dr Ian Adamson said, ‘they are an authentic and valuable record of the Somme.’
To commemorate the anniversary the artist released 150 signed and numbered limited edition prints of the paintings.
Today four of the paintings are on display in the Somme Museum. Sadly, two further paintings in the collection were stolen from the Memorial Room of the Ulster Memorial Tower in 1991 and have never been recovered.