At war

COMFORT

“During the first lockdown in 2020, along with a friend and former colleague from the fashion industry, I made ‘hairbands’ for nurses at Ealing and Charing Cross hospitals in London.

”The nurses were able to loop their masks over the buttons, which helped avoid pressure on the skin around their ears.”

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

“While serving as a sergeant major in Germany during World War Two, my great-grandfather spent many nights on guard duty, while his squadron slept. On these occasions, a young German girl often would strike up a conversation with him. Before moving on, she would hold out her hand as if expecting my great-grandad to give her something, at which he would hand her his biscuit rations. One night, much to the girl’s delight, instead of biscuits he gave her some spare buttons from his uniform.

“Soon after, when his squadron passed through a nearby village, my great-grandad spotted the girl and her family. The mother thanked him profusely, explaining that with the money obtained from selling the buttons she had been able to buy food for her family.”

A REMARKABLE WOMAN

“This brass ‘Crown and Flying Eagle’ button is a 24 mm domed coat button from the RAF uniform of my aunty. It is one of eight. She served in the Women’s Royal Air Force during World War Two and helped prepare and decommission Lancaster bombers at RAF Binnbrook.

“When not servicing aeroplanes she worked at a searchlight battery close to the base. One night, when cranking the searchlight upward she got her two middle fingers caught in the mechanism. They were both amputated at the first joint. At the end of the war she received £7.12s compensation for her injuries.”