Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was born in the Wirral in 1865 and having trained as a doctor he was sent to Newfoundland in 1892 by The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen in an attempt to improve the plight of coastal inhabitants and fishermen, a task in which he excelled; opening hospitals, missions, schools, co-operatives and industrial work projects along the Newfoundland coast. On a return visit to the UK in 1922, Grenfell presented a lecture on his missionary work at the request of a Burnley mill owner, Walter Haythornthwaite, and it was during this presentation that the idea for Grenfell cloth was born as: “The right cloth for Labrador mission workers”, said Grenfell, should be light because travel was always on foot, following the dog teams. It should also be strong, for once on the trail, the wearer’s life might well depend on it. It should be weatherproof, to turn both rain and snow, and windproof to retain wearer’s warmth . Above all, it must allow the body moisture to escape. Mr Haythornthwaite heard these words as a challenge. After a year of experiment, he produced a cloth in 1923 which Sir Wilfred said was ideal. In a letter, he said ,”It is light, durable and very fine looking. It really has been a boon to us all and I think the public should know of it. They will be grateful, I know.” Later, when it was decided to give the cloth a name, Sir Wilfred himself suggested “Grenfell Cloth” The public did get to know of it and Haythornthwaite created a major industry out of Grenfell Cloth which was woven from Egyptian Cotton and was a huge success for several decades until, as is often the way with industry, the business was gobbled up by a Japanese cashmere company in 1991 and a faceless holding company in 2002 – subsequent legal battles have left an uncertain future. Fortunately, we’ve got a nice jacket here in the collection which dates from the 1950’s. It was kindly donated by Sandy Walker whose Uncle Willy had worn it for many years whilst working as a deerstalker in the Scottish Highlands.