Serving with pride

Agentle clicking resonates inside a large room down a north London backstreet. About 30 men and women sit, each at their own station, needles and threads in hand, sewing machines on their tables. This is Kashket & Partners, a specialist in military uniforms.

Soldiers need coats, tunics and trousers as well as weapons – and Kashket is proud to make them. The company’s history can be traced to Russia, where the Kashket family were milliners. Alfred Kashket – later awarded an MBE – made felt hats for Tsar Nicholas II and, after moving to London in the 1920s, built relationships with the Royal Household and military. Today, the company remains a family business and in 2011 made the uniform worn by HRH The Duke of Cambridge at his wedding. Alfred’s son, master tailor Bernard Kashket MBE, is “the font of all knowledge when it comes to uniforms”, explains my guide, a former Welsh Guards warrant officer. Bernard’s son, Russell, is the chairman of the group and senior directing master tailor,