Renown
The following information comes from my student’s favorite substitute teacher/ history/military expert, Col. Don Askew. I am leaving it in his words because I don’t think they can be improved upon.
The flag is a Naval Ensign and is the official flag of the British Royal Navy. It is flown over all British naval vessels as an identifier as such. Other British ships (merchant marine, commercial, yachts, etc.) fly their own distinctive ensigns. The flag had it's origin back around 1801, so it has been around for a while. The ship (HMS Renown) was launched in 1915 and served in every major theater of war during WWII. It's fairly famous in England as a part of their "England Rules The Waves" naval history and heritage. It was scrapped in 1948. The soldier is a bit of a puzzler. He is wearing a uniform that hasn't changed much since WWI, but his decorations are different and much more in line with a later (post WWII) period. He is wearing the wings of the Royal Air Force or, more likely, the Royal Naval Air Service. Both would date him somewhere between WWI and the start of WWII in the mid-1930s. Since you say the needles were made in Germany, it is doubtful that they would have been showing a British ship much after 1936 until well after the end of WWII and the Occupation (somewhere around 1949). The ship did not become particularly famous until WWII. Incidentally, the British call it a "battlecruiser" as opposed to the larger, more powerful, "battleship". If I were going to guess, I'd say he's just a representative figure and not a specific person and would guess that they were made sometime in the postwar period. The identification on the flag and the ship are positive; the soldier and the date are a "best guess".
September 3, 2001
Addendum:
I don’t always believe the claims that sellers make on eBay about their wares, but one recently caught my eye. The needle book in question was the Army & Navy book “Renown”. On the reverse there is a picture of a soldier. I had asked a military buff to tell me what he could about the pictures on this needle book. He failed to recognize the picture and assumed that it was just a generic soldier. According to the eBay seller, it is Edward VIII (1894-1972). After an on-line tour of many web-sites with pictures, I think she just may be right. It is hard to tell for sure. Most of the pictures of Edward that I found, were profiles. I couldn’t find a public domain picture to include here, but with a simple search, you can find the pictures for yourself and see what you think. This is THE Edward…the one that abdicated the throne after falling in love with American Divorcee, Wallis Simpson.
Brief Synopsis of Edward VIII’s Military Career:
After attending the Royal Naval College (and Oxford), Edward served in World War I (1914-1918) as aide-de-camp to the British Expeditionary Force in France. After the war, Edward traveled worldwide promoting peace, diplomacy, British trade, and the unity of the British Empire.
After Edward’s abdication, his brother gave him the title Duke of Windsor. During World War II (1939-1945), he volunteered for a military position and was made liaison officer. In 1940 he became governor of the Bahamas, which was then a British Colony.
