Bits of our past …… the bits we lose or throw away

There will be those who mutter darkly, “why choose these objects to write about when there are so many more interesting things to feature?”

And there I would disagree because if you grew up in the 1940s and 50s these hair curlers and RAF button will be familiar and offer up stories as relevant as the Crown Jewels …… if a tad less expensive.

They come from Ann Love’s button box, who tells me “I found these old hair curlers.  I can just about remember them as a child back in the 40’s and 50’s.

The other item is a button. Howard tells me it's probably RAF, but he remembers helping his brother polish his brass buttons, but this is not brass. Any ideas?"

The hair curlers carry the words “Dinkie”, and remarkably a search threw up “Six Charming Vintage Dinkie Hair Curlers” on Ebay for a fiver, and even more remarkable, a picture of four still attached to their original card on pinterest.*

They will have been one of those everyday bits of ephemera, which were bought, lost, or discarded and quickly replaced, with little thought.

And likewise, there will be plenty of men born before 1942, who will readily recognize the service button as one they might have had to polish during their National Conscription years which with one short break ran from 1940 till 1960.

To be more accurate between 1939 and 1948 it was often referred to as “war service” and required that all male British subjects between 18 and 51 years old and all women from  20 to 30 years old and resident in Britain were liable to be called up, although there were with some exemptions.**

In 1948 with a deteriorating international scene brought on by the Cold War, and a growing number of “colonial conflicts”, national military service was introduced, which demanded that all healthy young men aged 17 to 21 had to serve in the armed forces for 18 months, and remain on the reserve list for four years. 

Added to which they could be recalled to their units for up to 20 days for no more than three occasions during these four years.

So Ann’s button may well have arrived in her button box via a young man having done his years with the armed forces.

Of course, she may have acquired it in a host of other ways.  As to what it is made of is yet to be determined.

Location; 1950s

Pictures; hair curlers and button, 2021 from the collection of Ann Love

*Hair curlers, https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/107171666112640466/

**National Conscription, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_Kingdom