You may have heard of the Caterpillar Club. Here, at our museum, we had a volunteer who had such a pin. His life had been saved when he jumped from his aircraft during WW2. His membership then had been issued by the Irvin Parachute Company (see first photo).
In 1922 Leslie Irvin agreed to give a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes. The caterpillar was used as a name for the club because parachutes were made from silk. At the end of the Second World War the number of members with Irvin pins had grown to over 34,000 though the total of people saved by Irvin parachutes is estimated to be 100,000.
In a similar vein, in the archives, we have a mug issued by Elliott Equipment Limited of Cardiff, U.K. The inscription on the mug (see photo 2) reads “From Elliott Equipment Limited, Cardiff, to commemorate your emergency descent with an Elliott Parachute.” The donor is unknown to us, but I am sure the recipient made good use of it!
by J. Grierson, CATPM Archivist
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum & RCAF WWII Memorial 