The most stylish men around town right now? The Chelsea Pensioners

Telegraph

05-05-2025

VE Day's 80 th Anniversary is less than a week away and to celebrate it, all self-respecting Britons are dusting off whatever bunting they had out five years ago, excited to celebrate this milestone without the caveat of lockdown. There are also some who are eyeing up large, symbolic gestures, one of which is Manchester-based menswear brand, Private White VC.
Based in the heart of Britain's historic textile and manufacturing district, Private White VC has created a capsule collection in collaboration with the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners. This collection, launching on the May 5, will both mark the time passed since the end of Nazi threat, but also help provide for the future of this military retirement home. Fifty per cent of all sales of this collection will be donated to the Royal Hospital with the aim of being able to pay for a full-time nurse by 2026.
For those not in the know, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, which was founded by King Charles II in 1682, is available to enlisted soldiers (this is not for officers unless they came through the ranks), male and female, who are in receipt of the state pension, and have no other dependants. They are as noticeable on London streets as the Household Division, shuffling along as they do with immaculate scarlet tunics and shako hats, medals gleaming and shoes polished. It is notable that many of the Pensioners there today served in the Falklands War, and the Prime Minister from whom they took their marching orders, Margaret Thatcher, is interred on the Hospital grounds with her husband, Dennis.
The collection itself is made up of four items, all bearing the Royal Hospital's cap badge. A flight jacket, based on the G-1 from World War Two, comes in doeskin wool and shearling collar with Private White's signature copper zip. A submariner's roll neck, which is Royal Navy standard issue, but in this iteration it's in cashmere rather than sheep's wool. Accessories-wise there is a tote made from Ventile, a World War Two-era waterproof cotton which was created at Churchill's request in Manchester's Shirley Institute, offering effectively a waterproof cotton for downed pilots which helped increase survival rates in the sea by 80 per cent. Finally, a two-tone blanket with the colours of the Victoria Cross's crimson and the RHC scarlet.
Private White CEO James Eden, great grandson of the eponymous Jack White VC, says: 'For my family's background in the military and manufacturing, this feels like the perfect union for a great cause and what is, in my view, one of the most important landmark anniversaries of recent times.'
Some of the pensioners took the journey north to visit the beautiful red-brick factory where Private White VC make their military-adjacent clothing. They arrived in their finery, and walked about the factory where, as James says, 'They are all of an age where (in their youth) textiles and factories meant a lot more than it does now. Back in their day, their wives, mothers [and] sisters could easily have worked at a textiles mill. So for them to be able to see one in full force was quite magical to them.'
One of the three who visited, David Goodwin, says, 'I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the Private White VC factory. It was an amazing day, meeting the staff and watching the skilled personnel producing the fabulous garments on show. It was good to learn the history of Private White and the story behind him being awarded the Victoria Cross in World War One.'
Behind the quasi-celebrity status of the pensioners in both Chelsea (it is practically illegal for them to be charged for a pint at the pub), and on state occasions in their tricorns, there lies a more sombre purpose for the Royal Hospital that puts an exclamation mark on how important it is to maintain it.
One pensioner, Ted Fell, says: ' Becoming a Chelsea Pensioner was for me a life saver. After losing my wife, moving into the Royal Hospital gave me a lot of new friends and a new purpose in life.' War had played psychosocial havoc in their youth, but loneliness provides a similar challenge in old age, and that is where the Royal Hospital comes in.
The 80 th Anniversary of VE Day is an opportunity for thanks and to reflect on the perseverance of holding the line until, as Churchill put it in his book The Second World War, the surrender of the Germans 'was the signal for the greatest outburst of joy in the history of mankind' on May 8, 1945. The legacy of those line-holders lingers in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and with this gesture, Private White VC hope to contribute to an ongoing sense of gratitude to this momentous day, and you can too.