thank god?
first of all my mother was taught to knit by her grandfather and he was a regular soldier in the gordons(no joke about the gay gordons please). apparently a lot of soldiers and saliors did knitting and sewing. i'm not certain but i think the army was as bad then as now for not replacing kit so the troops did their own repairs, and did the army in victorian and edwardian times issue cold weather kit? i dont think so, so they made their own. and as for the raf well we have senior officers who spend 30k of taxpayers money on curtains for their official residence!! thank god that rifkind sacked him.