One afternoon in December 2008 I arrived at Headley Court Military Rehabilitation Hospital in Epsom to give a Christmas present of bespoke shirts to seriously injured young service personnel returning from Afghanistan, as a gift of gratitude and in recognition of their courage serving our country. I was met by Peter Haslam, who ran the non-medical side of the hospital and had devoted over 15 years of his life to our injured, and is now a great friend. A nurse took me to the Complex Trauma Unit where the patients were having their supper. She gave me the invaluable advice that I should talk to them about their injuries and how they were sustained as they are very proud of their service and it is good for their psychological recovery to talk about it. As I drove home I knew I could not just walk away from these young servicemen and women, and had to keep visiting.
Over 10 years of visits I gathered a personal address book of over 500 injured servicemen and women, and subsequently their wives, mothers, partners and children. I realised that after being discharged they faced colossal challenges when beginning new lives and jobs, particularly as many of them were very young. I realised it would greatly help them to have smart clothes for interviews and work. Through my business contacts I arranged for Marks & Spencer and Reiss to donate over 1000 suits, for Russell and Bromley to give them smart leather brogues, and for Lock’s to give hats to those with head injuries (one young man was never without his bowler hat at Headley Court!). In addition I designed a black ebony walking stick for those who needed one, with a silver band engraved with their initials and regiment, making it appear as a smart fashion accessory rather than a medical aid.
Hari Budha Magar being kitted out with a smart Reiss suit.
Style for Soldiers has sponsored 10 injured veterans into new careers. We have funding degrees at University, put on an exhibition of their powerful poetry, paintings and performances in three cities called ‘Art in the Aftermath’ and used our contacts to make introductions that in many cases have led to very beneficial opportunities for them.
I met many Gurkhas at Headley Court, including the astonishing Hari Budha Magar, who greeted me with that dazzling smile and humbling gratitude for his bespoke shirt. I told him that my father Michael Willis had served with the 1st Battalion 2nd Gurkhas in Singapore as a young man and had raised over £100,000 for the Gurkha Welfare Trust. I had been brought up surrounded by Gurkha items including china figures on our dining room table, Gurkha portraits in my father’s dressing room, and Gurkha table mats. Hari and his wife Urmila have become great friends of my father and I over the years. A few years ago they invited him for tea on his birthday and Urmila made the most beautiful cake decorated with a Gurkha cap badge.
We receive many moving letters, emails and messages from patients, often hand-written and sometimes in careful capitals rather than joined-up writing, as well as thanks from several mothers, all of which I have kept. I remember one patient writing that he was going to propose in his shirt and the engagement ring was ‘burning a hole in his pocket.’
As these young people, predominantly men, started to go out in to the world they missed each other and the company of like-minded former colleagues who had experienced things that we civilians will never know or be able to imagine. I learnt that loneliness can be the trigger for PTSD, depression or addiction, which is not at all surprising, so began arranging reunions which are now the most important things we do. e hold the largest reunions in the country for injured service personnel and their families, including a summer dinner in Gloucestershire and a big Christmas Dinner at The Savoy in London. We also organise two Family Days, one at Woburn Safari Park kindly given for over 10 years now by His Grace The Duke of Bedford and the other at Cotswold Wildlife Park given by owner Reggie Heyworth. The charity provides hotel accommodation for everyone at these events. We always have the pleasure of welcoming several Gurkhas, their wives and children at our reunions.
Hari Budha Magar and his wife Umilla at the S4S Christmas Party 2025.
Gurkha ex-servicemen at one of the other ‘Style for Soldiers’ events in 2024.
The reunions are joyful events. In 2016, the then Prince of Wales attended our Style for Soldiers Christmas Party at Spencer House. His Royal Highness had discreetly visited Headley Court many, many times, and I heard how many young service personnel had awoken from their operation to see the face of their future King, as well as enjoying wonderful conversations at their bedsides. The Prince of Wales met and talked to over 100 injured service personnel and then spoke to all our 250 guests, an encounter which we will of course treasure for all our lifetimes.
The charity’s events also introduce wives, partners and children, creating a strong network that I hope will last independently of Style for Soldiers well into the future, for the rest of their lives. Their physical and psychological injuries will never go away. I have noticed what a vital role the wives and partners so often play in supporting our injured, and it is a great pleasure to be able to include them too in our parties and family days. I feel honoured and privileged to have met and got to know very well so many of our brave armed forces personnel and their families over the years, and now understand very well my father’s passion throughout his life to support them as best we can.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) meeting injured Gurkhas and their families at the 2016 reunion event. Emma Willis is on the right of the picture.
More about the charity and details of how to donate to it can be found on its website: https://www.styleforsoldiers.com/. Style for Soldiers is holding a fundraising event in London on 8th April. Hari Budha Magar will discuss with Frank Gardner, the BBC correspondent, his extraordinary expedition in which he made mountaineering history by becoming the first above-knee double amputee to summit the highest peaks of the seven continents, including Mount Everest. To book tickets please see https://www.styleforsoldiers.com/products/an-evening-with-frank-gardner-obe-and-hari-budha-magar-mbe-8th-april-2026
Hari Budha Magar on the summit of Mt Vinson, Antarctica
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