Pub Sign Photo Study The Wellington – Weaste – Salford

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Most signs depicting the Duke Of Wellington show great reverence to the politician and military hero of Waterloo, often portraying him in distinguished military uniform, sometimes on the battlefield. This sign depicts him as a cartoonish living Wellington boot, with a hat and a field telescope. It looks like the kind of political satire you’d expect from early editions of Punch magazine. Wellington actually did initiate the creation of the boot that was given his name though the boot he asked military footwear makers to create was just a modification to existing hessian boots to allow them to cover the knees for cavalry officers, to afford them better bullet proofing. As gunners would aim for the horses rather than the riders many cavalry men received crippling leg and knee wounds so taller, heavily padded yet more flexible boots were an early foreshadowing of modern Kevlar body armour. The Wellingtons used by gardeners and walkers don’t tend to cover the knees. This sign wittily turns Wellington into a boot himself. I wonder if he would have been amused? Arthur Chappell