When London academic Jane Robinson heard St Paul’s Cathedral – her local church – wanted to trace the families of WW1 soldiers who created an intricate hand-sewn altar cloth two years ago, she stepped forward to “solve the puzzle”.
Kirton, who had recently started compiling a scrap book of her family history, sent the historian a WW1 photograph of her father, along with a short piece about when and where he was shot and how he ended up convalescing in the South African Military Hospital in Richmond, Surrey.
She remembers her “poorly educated but wise” father who recovered from his WW1 gunshot injury only to enlist for WW2, very well.
“Before he went to North Africa to fight in WW2, my mother taught me to embroider and he would come back from work and say bits were not good enough. He would tell me to unpick my work and do it again. He told us about the frontal and said the embroidery was occupational therapy.”
Her father, who also survived WW2, was a bus driver all his life and died of heart failure in East London when he was 60.
Kirton embarked on her journey to see his 100-year-old handiwork last month. “Knowing it was on exhibit worked at me until I decided I would go. I regarded it as a mission.”
On February 12 Kirton enjoyed a conducted tour of St Paul’s, and, as Robinson’s special guest, she was led to areas – including a special lift – in the massive cathedral not open to the the public.
“It was unbelievable. Then we ended up in front of the frontal. It was lit up in a special glass case. I had no idea how magnificent it was.
“When I saw my father’s photograph along with the other men they could trace beneath it, I got a lump in my throat. It was the photo of my dad from my scrapbook.”
Kirton was also handed a colour copy of the commemorative book containing the names of 133 soldiers who had worked on the cloth. When she saw that the book had been inscribed to her, she was overcome with emotion.
“I put my head down and wept,” she said. “I thought: ‘It’s taken 98 years but you’re history, Pops.’” – barbarah@dispatch.co.za