Messenger Jacket
Original label (stapled to pocket): METROPOLITAN POLICE Messenger
Date - London 1942
Owner’s name - William’s
Tailor - J. Compton & Webb Ltd. London (Derbyshire, England, since 1899 now dissolved).
Decorations:
Two gold crown insignia on collar representing ‘The Crown’
Two braided chevrons on sleeves
I bought this jacket last summer in an antique store going out of business, in Grey Abbey, Belfast, Ireland.
The owner said it had been there forever. As usual it cost more to tailor it, that to buy it. Cost around $25- Tailoring - $100-
Hat
HARRODS door man’s cap circa 1970’s
Patent leather visor, gold braded H
This hat belonged to memoir writer, Alfred O’Mahony, retired HARRODS doorman, whom I met on a train in Ireland last year.
Alfie’s memoir, ‘The Way We Were’ is about time his spent as an orphan in the Irish industrial schools of the ‘50’s
