Fair Isle jumper

Fair Isle jumpers have been produced since the 17th century by generations of Shetlanders, usually by women, children or the elderly. Knitted in the round, they traditionally incorporate four colours created from local plant-based dyes, and feature standard motifs such as anchors and crosses. In the 1920s the future King Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, helped to start a craze for knitted jumpers after wearing a Fair Isle jumper to play golf at St Andrews.

This particularly Fair Isle jumper, which is believed to date back to the 1920s, was worn for golfing by General Sir Walter Kirke, Commander-in-chief of the British Home Forces during the Second World War.