In Remembrance on Armistice Day
Today is Armistice Day, the day upon which a truce was signed and hostilities ceased on the Western Front in 1918. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we come together as one in silence to pay our respects to those killed in conflicts since the beginning of the First World War.
Many of our mill workers at the time were called up to the forces, and our production very rapidly switched from luxury fashion cloths to hard-wearing wools for army use.
We manufactured the fabrics used for the World War One British Army Greatcoat, a dense construction water-proofed to keep the troops warm and protected against the elements. Pictured below are some of the original army cloths straight from our archive book.
The archives show us the extent of the change in our production, with page after page of fabrics not only for the Greatcoat but also army shirting, trousering and blankets.
More recently, we have produced a Great War Commemorative Blanket, a tribute featuring the official Dress Stewart tartan of King George V (ruling monarch at the time of WWI) and backed on the reverse by a Khaki Green plain. For every single one of these throws produced, a donation has been made in turn to The Royal British Legion, one of the UK’s leading charities for the support of British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force veterans.
We will always remember the sacrifices made during the Great War, not only by the 143 men lost from our small Yorkshire town of Guiseley and the countless others in the trenches, but by those on the Home Front too.
