button-hole
During the World War I conscription put into uniform some 6 million men in Britain alone. When the war ended these men were demobbed back home with little more than the uniforms they stood in; but in 1918, to get a job, the first thing a man needed and the last thing he could afford was not a uniform, it was a suit. So, he took his army tunic to a tailor where it was transformed. The badges removed, the buttons replaced and the military collar turned to make the suit collar and chest lapels. The only witness being the topmost button hole. This is the buttonhole that we now use for holding flowers. Poppies perhaps.
