focusman

By welshcameraman

A very special cigarette Lighter

This cigarette lighter was made for my late father in 1945. He was an officer in the Kings African Rifles regiment stationed in Kenya and responsible for several hundreds of Italian prisoners of war.  The P.O.W. camp was near to the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, hence the engraving of a mountain on the front of the lighter. Several of the Italians were skilled mechanical engineers and one of them made this cigarette lighter using just hand tools and materials from a crashed German aircraft. It was presented to my father  just before the prisoners were released at the end of the war. It is still in perfect working order even after all these years. I think the engraving is just beautiful both back and front. My extra photo is the engraving of the regimental badge on the reverse of the lighter.

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.