Why my father’s scarf is made out of a parachute

HER RAAF father was in the infamous Caterpillar Club.

Yorklea's Robyn Cooper with her father's airforce uniform.

THE scarf of Robyn Cooper's father is made out of the parachute he used when forced to land in Belgium in 1943.

"The people who rescued Dad hid him but his injuries got so bad they had to turn him in to the Germans," Robyn said from her Yorklea home.

A woman named Maria Juliette Mariette sewed a scarf and handkerchief out of Stanley Roderick Nowlan's parachute before burying the rest to hide it from the Germans.

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This year was the first time since her father's death that Robyn didn't march on Anzac Day.

Stanley Roderick Nowlan served in the Royal Australian Air Force 460 squadron, formed in November 1941 and based at Lincolnshire in England. He was also one of the original guards of the Maefking Lamp in Casino.

As a child Robyn polished her Dad's boots and cleaned his uniform with cold tea. Then, wearing her Red Cross uniform, the family commemorated Anzac Day.

This year was quieter and Robyn held a private ceremony at home.

Part of the tribute to her father was sharing his story on Facebook. She included mementos and photos from the war.

"We have a family box of history and it includes a parachute card which made my Dad part of the Caterpillar Club," Robyn said.

The club is for those whose lives have been saved by a parachute.

Robyn's father came back from two years in a German prison of war camp "very thin", she said.

He died in 1972 but is never forgotten.