When Anne Ward visited a charity shop in search of a tablecloth in 2018, she had no idea that she’d walk out with a piece of First World War embroidery. She’s still trying to unravel its mysteries with her husband Damian, says Claire Vaughan
On 12 November 2018, 100 years and a day after the Armistice was signed, Anne Ward walked into the British Red Cross charity shop in Brecon, Powys, Mid-Wales, unaware that her life was about to change. “I was looking for a tablecloth for a Christmas party, and the manager brought out a bag of white linens from the back.
“I happily rummaged in the bag of tablecloths and bed sheets. And then I saw something trimmed with lace,” Anne says in the self-published book Twelve Secret Voices (Aspect Design, 2021). “I eased it out and unfolded it. It was an arrangement of white square panels, three across and four down. Each was embroidered in its centre with white thread and they in turn were joined with a wide strip of lace.”
She was expecting flowers, baskets of fruit or bonneted figures to adorn the panels. What she saw was an exquisitely embroidered regimental badge featuring a springbok.
“I grew up in South Africa so I thought, ‘What is this springbok doing in Wales?’ ” Anne tells me. “Then I saw a Canadian badge, an Engineers’ badge and the Royal Flying Corps badge.”
She was so taken with the embroidery that she paid £10 instead of the £5 the manager asked for. Back home, she shared her purchase with her husband Damian, a former soldier who has an interest in military history. He was just as intrigued.
The couple’s first question was, “Where had the embroidery come from?” They deduced that someone local must have donated it. “The staff in the shop couldn’t remember who’d dropped it off, or when it had been brought in,” says Anne. “Repeated local appeals for the donor or any identification drew a blank.”
With no idea what it was, the pair tested out various theories. “Some people suggested that it might have been made as a wall hanging, altar frontal or a tablecloth, but we’re now confident it’s a bedspread. There’s evidence that it has been used: on the reverse you can see where threads have rubbed a little, as if it had been laid on a bed and moved around. The rest is immaculate.”
SKILLED STITCHING
More clues came from the stitches themselves. “We sent photos to the Embroiderers’ Guild (embroiderersguild.com), and they believe it was made by one pe
