John Tilley rose to fame when he invented a ‘hydro pneumatic blowpipe’ in 1813. However, we are more interested in the Tilley Lamp that his descendants created in the 1920’s; a pressurised paraffin lamp which became a household name for decades to come until liquid gas and electricity stole the limelight. Pretty sure we have an early (1930’s) PL 53 model here in the collection though it is possibly an earlier PL 52. It seems that multitudes of these lanterns were acquired by the military during World War Two and painted green or grey. We are told ours is brass, so best guess is a PL52 painted grey for military use and subsequently sold as government surplus after the war. This particular Tilley belonged to Dick Gowers, a well kent man o’ the hills in the 1940/50’s when he would have used his Tilley in various bothies, howffs and caves on trips with his fellow members of the Creag Dubh Mountaineering Club, and ‘yes’ these guys did haul along these lamps with them, often in a bespoke carrier- the hiss of a Tilley, roar of a Primus and aroma of paraffin were all part of the weekends heady mix.