MY ECLECTIC WORLD: An Inheritance

Now here’s a thought for those of you who are avid shoe polishers, like me. My show polishing goes back many years to when I was into my first pair of “proper grown up shoes” which were of course black and laced up – nu buckles or straps for me! Granddad taught me how to put the polish on and how to brush it off at just the right speed and pressure that would guarantee a deep shine. By the time I was a teenager and had become an Army Cadet where you needed to do a bit more than just put a shine on your boots, I was accomplished at “bulling” my boots and shoes. That is to say, sitting down with two dusters, a tin of “Kiwi” polish and, if you were not able to produce a bit of spit, a small amount of clean water in the lid of the polish tin. Armed with this you were then you were ready to go. However, if the boots were brand new you would have had to had spent several hours smoothing and preparing the hard and resistant leather so that they would adopt that deep lustre that you would be seeking to achieve.

So, sitting boot settled between my knees I would first brush in the polish and then spread it over the boot, take a dab of extra polish into my duster and then work it in a circular motion over a small area until it started to shine. During this process I would have to spit a small amount of saliva onto the area and again working the duster in small circles. This would go on until the whole boot was covered and the deep glossy shine I wanted was achieved. For the sake of brevity I have shortened this process considerably and also left out the many frustrating moments when a shine could not be achieved without resorting the small amount of tab water in the tin lid!!

Lets just say that I had a pair of boots that would be acceptable to any member of the Brigade of Guards and that these boots would accompany me into the Regular Army when I enlisted some years later. I had to sneak the boots in as I did not want anyone to realise that I was perhaps 2 years ahead of the other recruits! These boots lasted me all through my service as a soldier and I was foolish enough to leave them behind when I was discharged nine years later, oh I do wish I had kept those boots.

Now, when I went into the Army my granddad gave me his show brushes and a fine gift they proved to be. They had been issued to him when he enlisted in 1914 aged 17 and they saw him through both world wars and left the army with him in 1945 when he continued to use them until he retired in the late 1960’s. These brushes were so impregnated with polish that you were able to simply run the “putter on” over a pair of shoes and then buff them with the “polisher” and with little of no effort a shine would be forthcoming.

These brushes have seen service in the UK, Cyprus, Libya, Germany when I was a soldier and have travelled the world with me ever since. This year is their 96th birthday and they continue to serve me well and thanks to the little somewhat insignificant inheritance from granddad. But what an inheritance as each time I use them it is he I think of with immense affection and gratitude for the things he taught me about life, history and the Empire that he remembered so well.

Granddads Brushes – 96 years old this year!