Yard-O-Led Lucky Pencil

YARD-O-LED has remade its archive model ‘The Deco 34’, originally sold in 1930. This limited edition reimagining of the model is an copy of the original and in honour of the gold pencil which saved Lt Leslie March’s life in 1942.

Lt. March was one of the first to volunteer joining the Royal Artillery as a private (No: 190734) and was commissioned in June 1941. He wanted to be in the Infantry and transferred, as a Lieutenant, to the Cameron Highlanders in 1942. It was while serving with them that he took the bullet which was 'stopped' by his YARD-O-LED pencil that had been given to him by his wife Margaret, it saved his life. From then on it went everywhere with him, as his lucky charm. At the end of 1943 he volunteered for the Commandos being formed by Lord Lovat, by then he was an acting Captain and Adjutant.

In 1944 he landed on the Normandy Beaches on D-Day plus 1 and on the following day were digging in he was inspecting the trenches he was hit by a shell and killed instantly.

The "lucky charm" pencil was kept by his family as a precious heirloom and a reminder of his heroics.
It was then donated to YARD-O-LED museum by his step brother, Mr Kelly, who aged 90 this year remembers Leslie as ‘my hero’.

The original pencil was a “Deco 34 “, a model that the YARD-O-LED had not made for many years, all the tooling had to be remade to be able to produce a copy of this original pencil. With its square body, distinctive pattern, and unusual ball clip, it is unlike any other writing instrument in the current collection. All YARD-O-LED writing instruments are hand made in our Birmingham workshop using the same machines that would have made Lt Leslie March’s original pencil.