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A War Wedding . . .This wedding dress was made from the material of a silk parachute. The dress was worn by Lyla Stimson on the occasion of her marriage to Kenneth Beattie. Kenneth Beattie served in Hong Kong with the Royal Rifles, and was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp near Tokyo for almost four years. This parachute was dropped from an American plane to deliver relief supplies to soldiers on the boats returning home from the POW camps. Kenneth Beattie brought the parachute home and on September 7, 1946, Lyla wore it as a wedding dress when they married. The decision to use the parachute was sentimental, practical, and resourceful. Not only did the dress symbolize hope and liberation, but it would also have been extremely hard to come by silk at this time – war rationing, shortages, and price inflation would probably have made it nearly impossible to be married in an elaborate wedding gown.
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Lyla Stimson Wedding Dress7 September 1946
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Credits:Bay Chaleur Military Museum
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Kenneth Beattie and Lyla Stimson's Wedding Photo7 September 1946
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Credits:Bay Chaleur Military Museum
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Lyla Stimson Beattie and her Wedding Dress20th Century, Circa 1990's
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Credits:Bay Chaleur Military Museum
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