FEATURE
………………………
Knitting For Tommy
(and Charlie, and Walter)
By Rosee Woodland
There are few families in Europe whose lives were not touched by the First World War. As
we mark the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, Oxford knitter Karen Cox has created a
memorial quilt that honours the sacrifice of a generation.
Four years ago the Tower of London was surrounded
by a sea of ceramic poppies, each one representing a
life lost in the First World War. Every evening from
August to November thousands of people would
gather at the wall overlooking this most poignant
of memorials. As dusk fell, a hush would descend,
and 180 names would be read out; a roll of honour
for lives lost, followed by the haunting bugle of
the Last Post. Despite the huge crowds, the silence
would remain until the final name, punctured by
an occasional sob echoing across the Tower moat.
Altogether, some five million people travelled to see
the 888,246 poppies, each flower symbolising one
of the British and Commonwealth military fatalities
between 1914 and 1918.
There were no winners in this war. The conservative
estimate is that 8.5 million soldiers across Europe,
Russia and the Ottoman Empire lost their lives,
while some 6.5 million civilian deaths were caused
by malnutrition and disease brought about by the
war. This year brings an opportunity to remember
all those who were affected, transcending lines on a
map or man-made borders.
Knitters have long made their own poppies for
Remembrance Day and, as we mark the centenary
of the end of the First World War, Banbury knitter
Karen Cox has created her own act of dedication - a
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handmade quilt that commemorates the men in her
own family.
Karen wanted to remember the sacrifice made by
the fathers and sons who never came home, and
used their civilian occupations as the inspiration
for her design. The piece took her nine months
and 37 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed to make, and
combines Fairisle, intarsia and Swiss darning in its
beautiful motifs.
Karen said: “I have always intended to knit
something to commemorate the sacrifice of my great
grandfather Thomas Wade, who was killed in 1917.
In civilian life he was a glass fitter for the furniture
trade. He was an ordinary family man with a wife
and three children. His death left the family destitute
and left its mark on the family over the generations.
“I knew that I had a number of other relatives who
died in World War I, but it wasn’t until I started
putting my family tree online that I came up with
over 50. So, instead of knitting something small like
a wall-hanging, I decided to do something large to
remember all of these men.
“Names on a war memorial can convey the
enormous loss of life but concentrating on their
trades makes the men seem more real. They were
tailors, butchers, milkmen, printers, office clerks –
ordinary men. Some, of course, were already soldiers
and sailors before the war started – and they have
ROWAN