Vera Lynn’s daughter picks up torch in campaign to ban bearskin

‘My mother witnessed the seismic shift... What was once a symbol of prosperity became a symbol of cruelty’

THE daughter of Vera Lynn, the late “Forces’ Sweetheart”, is continuing her mother’s campaign to ban bearskin caps.

Before she died in 2020, 103-year-old Lynn called on the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to stop using fur to make the hats.

Now, Virginia Lewis-jones, Lynn’s daughter, has written to Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, imploring him to honour her mother by replacing the bearskin with faux fur. Ms Lewis-jones wrote: “Like many of her generation, my mother witnessed the seismic shift in attitudes towards fur.

“What was once a symbol of prosperity and glamour became a symbol of cruelty.

“And as a reflection of these changing attitudes, most British people, even Her Majesty the Queen, have come to reject it.

“Yet, inexplicably, bear fur is still being used to make the Queen’s Guard’s ornamental head wear.”

Normally, between 50 and 100 of the 18-inch hats, used by the military since the 1815 defeat of Napoleon, are bought by the Army each year.

Animal rights activists Peta claimed it had come up with a faux-fur alternative after teaming up with a company called Ecopel.

The group’s fake bear fur, which it said was “indistinguishable” from the real bear pelts used for caps, cost about £650 per hat.

However, according to a Freedom of Information request, the MOD spent £145,000 on 110 new bearskins in 2020, complaining that 2014 trials of the faux fur had led to guardsmen’s headgear becoming “waterlogged”.

The ceremonial headdress can only be worn by foot soldiers in the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards. In May last year, George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, began a consultation on banning the sale of fur in the UK.

This came after pressure from Tory figures including Carrie Johnson, Boris Johnson’s wife, and Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, the environment minister.

But in February, the proposed ban was shelved along with a ban on the import of foie gras after opposition from within the Cabinet.

The measures were expected to be included in the Animals Abroad Bill but have now been put on the backburner, while other elements of the Bill have been allowed to progress, such as those regarding hunting trophies.

A Government spokesman said it was “united in its commitment to upholding its world-leading standards in animal welfare”.

A recent survey by Populus for Peta found that 73 per cent of the British public would like to see action taken to replace the bearskin hats with faux fur alternatives.