This dress was worn by May Evelyn Roach at her wedding to Edgar George Whitcombe in 1916. May and Edgar grew up on neighbouring farms in Gloucestershire. There was a blizzard on the day they were married, so no wedding photographs were taken. Soon after the wedding, Edgar was sent to fight on the Western Front. He went missing during the Battle of the Somme, and only his wallet was recovered. He was posted missing on 1st of September, and by October all hope was lost. May wrapped her wedding dress in sheets of the Bristol Times and Mirror newspaper, and stored it in the box in which it had come from the dressmakers. It was still there when she died, aged 91 in 1984. She never remarried.