30/08/2026
✨ Did you know John Mander’s ‘Siren Suit’ is currently on loan from Wightwick to the exhibition ‘Wearing Feelings: Childhood in Black and Bright’ at The Children’s Country House at Sudbury until 7th September.
🧷 The ‘Siren Suit’ design is based on Winston Churchill’s Second World War Siren Suit. John’s suit also features a metal badge reading ‘East Wolverhampton War Comforts Group’. Geoffrey Mander, John’s father and donor of Wightwick Manor, was a Liberal MP for Wolverhampton East (1929-45) and during the Second World War when the Liberals were asked to join the government coalition under Churchill, Geoffrey became Parliamentary Private Secretary (1942-5) to their leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair. Geoffrey Mander was also a vehement critic of Neville Chamberlain’s policy of Appeasement and ended up on Hitler’s ‘Special Search List Great Britain’ - a secret list compiled in 1940 of prominent and outspoken British citizens to be arrested as part of the proposed N**i invasion of Britain. So fittingly, considering his father’s active involvement in the war effort, his son John was given a children’s copy of one of Churchill’s war time boiler suits.
👗 The exhibition delves into children’s fashion from the past 150 years, and explores how the wearability of children’s clothing has evolved to reflect growing emotional freedom and expression in childhood.
🧥 With only a few weeks left, visit this fascinating exhibition to see this boiler suit and more of children’s fashion through the ages, before it ends.
