Dame Vera Lynn’s campaign to ban bearskin caps reignited by daughter

Dame Vera Lynn, the late Forces’ Sweetheart, is campaigning to ban bearskin caps from beyond the grave.

Before her death in 2020, the animal-loving 103-year-old called on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to stop using fur for the iconic military hats.

Now Dame Vera’s daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones has picked up the torch, on Monday writing a letter to Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, imploring him to honour her mother by replacing the bearskin with faux fur.

“Like many of her generation, my mother witnessed the seismic shift in attitudes towards fur,” wrote Ms Lewis-Jones.

“What was once a symbol of prosperity and glamour became a symbol of cruelty. And as a reflection of these changing attitudes, most British people, even Her Majesty the Queen, have come to reject it.

“Yet, inexplicably, bear fur is still being used to make the Queen’s Guard’s ornamental headwear.”

Normally between 50 and 100 of the 18-inch hats, used by the military since the 1815 defeat of Napoleon, are bought by the Army each year.

After teaming up with a company called Ecopel, animal rights activist group Peta unveiled the world’s first faux bear fur that it claims is “indistinguishable” from the real bear pelts used for caps, which cost roughly £650 each.

However, according to a Freedom of Information request, the MoD spent £145,000 on 110 new bearskins in 2020, complaining that 2014 trials of fake fur by the MoJ had led to guardsmen’s headgear becoming “waterlogged”.

The ceremonial headdress can only be worn by foot soldiers in the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards.

The move came as George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, launched a consultation on banning the sale of fur in the UK following pressure from Tory figures including Boris Johnson’s wife, Carrie Johnson, and Lord Goldsmith, the Environment Minister.

But in February, the proposed ban was shelved, along with a ban on the import of foie gras, following opposition from within Cabinet.

The measures were due to be included in the Animals Abroad Bill but have now been put on the backburner, while other elements of the legislation have been allowed to progress.

A spokesperson for the government said it was “united in its commitment to upholding its world-leading standards in animal welfare”.

A recent survey by Populus for Peta found that 73 per cent of the British public would like to see action taken to replace the bearskin with faux fur.