William Britain (1828-1906) established himself as a toymaker in north-east London in the 1840s. He originally made mechanical toys and moved on to model soldiers in the 1890s. It is his son, William Britain Junior (1860-1933) who is credited with inventing the hollow-casting process for which the company became famous.
These sets were given to the museum by the daughter of the original owner, Henry Oswald Brown, born in 1891. Henry lived in Lincoln until 1903 and several of the boxes carry the mark of a shop in Lincoln, where no doubt these sets were bought. There were some military connections on his mother’s side of the family. Both his uncle and great uncle were members of a local militia force (a forerunner of the Territorial Army). Henry himself joined the TA prior to WWI and later went on to serve in both World Wars. The soldiers, which he obviously prized and took great care of, were the only toys Henry kept from his childhood.