Unknown Soldiers

Last summer I was browsing around the stalls of the “Antique and Bric-a-Brac” fair which is held every Friday in the Market Place, Hinckley, when I came across a rather tattered old cardboard box. I had a quick look inside and found it to be full of what can only be described as “nick-nacks” from a bygone age. It all looked very interesting so I made a bid for it and the stall holder agreed, saying that he was glad to see the back of it because although people looked at it they didn’t appear to be interested.

I hurried home with my new found treasure, my “Pandora’s Box”, where I carefully took out all the bits and pieces and examined at them. It slowly dawned on me that it must have belonged to one of the soldiers in the photograph, which was in the box.

There was a variety of military buttons and regimental badges and all looked as if they had been polished fairly recently. There was a number of army tunic flashes that had been unstitched from some uniforms and very dirty with what looke like mud stains, some shell cases which I recognised as .303 rifle rounds. A ladies comb, carved from ivory (not sure), a rather bedraggled badger-hair shaving brush, a tin mirror, collar studs and an old Boy Scouts belt buckle plus loads of lesser stuff.

I came to the conclusion that the person who owned must have died recently and was probably the son of one of the soldiers who would have been about 85 if he was the son of one of the young men in the picture. The stall-holder who sold it to me was a “house clearance person”!

OK, so I’ve got a vivid imagination, Perhaps I’m wrong (I usually am!), it could just be a box load of junk that the dealer had thrown all his unwanted stuff into.

There was an old book of tear-out postcards of Rouen dating back to the early 20th century. The book itself is in a delapidated condition, but the postcards are in fair good nick. Two of them have been used. Could it be that the original owner was stationed near Rouen in the World War I and used them to write home? There I go again, my imagination is running riot! If you are interested, Anji, email me.

UPDATE: (Sunday, 4th)
I recently had the old scout buckle renovated and a new leather belt attached, big enough to fit around my expanded waistline! The original belts were dark brown and had a clip on both hip sides to attach an approved ‘scouting knife’ that had a marlin spike, cutting blade and a screwdriver with beer-bottle-top opener! (eh?).

I thought it would look better with a black leather belt.

Click the pic for larger image, and then click that one for an even larger image.