Skip to content

Family reunited with soldier's WW2 make-up gift

Richard Tisdale
BBC Radio Shropshire
Shyamantha Asokan
BBC News, West Midlands
BBC A woman wearing a pink jumper holds the make-up box up to the camera.BBC
Barbara Carter was reunited with her family's make-up box earlier this month

At the end of 1944, teenager Aubrey Price sent what would be his last ever Christmas present to his mother in Shropshire.

Mr Price had been conscripted to fight in World War Two and he sent a box of French make-up to his mum, who had desperately tried to protect him from being made to join the front line.

He never returned home to Hadley, near Telford, as he was fatally wounded in Germany a few months later and died aged 19.

Mr Price's family were reunited this month with the make-up box, which was donated to a museum over 25 years ago but then placed in storage and forgotten.

Barbara Carter, Mr Price's niece, told BBC Radio Shropshire that the cosmetics were an "enigmatic, poignant reminder" of the young man who had died and his bond with his mother.

Family A black-and-white photograph of a soldier in uniform lying on a desk.Family
Aubrey Price, from Hadley, died in March 1945 at the age of 19

Mr Price was the middle child of three brothers and he grew up in Trench, an area next to Hadley.

He and his older brother Harold were conscripted during the war, although the family's youngest child George was too young.

"I believe in nature he was a soft and gentle boy. He was loved. He was the favourite I think," Mrs Carter, Harold's daughter, said of her uncle Aubrey.

"His mother tried everything in her power to try and prevent him from going."

"The story I was told was that she tried to bribe local councillors with her best tea-set to stop him from going. He was conscripted so he had to go."

The contents of a World War Two era make up bag are laid out and displayed on a table. There is a mix of lipsticks and boxes, as well as two bags
Mr Price sent the box of French make-up to his mother months before he died

On 7 March 1945, Mr Price was fatally wounded during a battle for control of a bridge in Westphalia, a region in north-west Germany.

His chaplain sent the family a letter, saying that doctors were unable to save the teenager but "they were able to make him comfortable, so his passing was quiet and without great suffering."

The letter added: "It was just around sunset when we took him out to the cemetery nearby and, in the presence of a few boys from the hospital, I laid him to his rest."

Two months before he died, Mr Price wrote a letter from the front line in Germany to his brother, who was also fighting.

He complained about the heavy snow and offered to send his brother cigarettes and tobacco, before signing off: "So cheerio. Lots of love from your loving brother Aubrey."

It was the last time his older brother heard from him.

Family A photograph of a woman holding a baby.Family
Mr Price's mother, pictured holding George, kept the make-up box without ever using it

Mr Price's mother kept the make-up box without using it and her youngest son George donated it to the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum in 1999 before he died.

It was never displayed and was placed in storage, until the museum's curator Rob McKinnon found it wrapped up at the start of this year.

Mr Mckinnon put out an appeal on social media, as did BBC Radio Shropshire, in order to find any of George's relatives. Someone who saw the appeal alerted Mrs Carter and she was invited to visit the museum and see the make-up box this month.

"Beautiful French cosmetics," said Mrs Carter when she saw them for the first time.

"They weren't used, because obviously his mother adored him."

A man wearing a coral t-shirt and white gloves sits a desk with the contents of the make-up box.
Museum curator Rob McKinnon found the make-up box in storage

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

More on this story
Related internet links