‘Forget Me Not’ – The role of Military Pin-Stuck Cushions in WWI

A Remembrance Day talk by folklorist Alessandra Curtis on WWI pin-stuck cushions made by servicemen as tokens of remembrance.

This talk for Remembrance Day examines Military Pin-Stuck Cushions, a popular gift made by servicemen between the Crimean War and the Great War, shaped as hearts in WWI and decorated with pins, military insignia, flags and cigarette cards. Abney Park houses 262 First World War burials, and the talk considers how a young soldier's gift illuminates the role of the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1917. Speaker Alessandra Curtis, a British-Italian folklorist and subject specialist for the Military Pin Stuck Cushions exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum, explores these artefacts as symbols of remembrance and the emotional narratives they contain.