1939

Production is devoted to the war effort

The outbreak of World War 2 in 1939 brought great changes to the country and of course to Kesslers. Bernhard had now joined the rest of the family in London and died in August 1941. Throughout the country manufacturing focused on the 'war effort'. Leopold was anxious to contribute and soon found an outlet for his engineering skills. Towards the end of 1939 he was working with a local firm on the development of a new mine detector, invented by Josef Kozacki, a lieutenant in the Polish army who was stationed in St Andrews. Leopold became closely involved in the design and manufacture of the mechanical parts. Known as The Mine Detector 2 (Polish), it was the first electronic detector.
From the age of 11, in 1938 Willie Kessler, Leopold's son, worked as a 'Saturday boy' in his father's factory where the umbrella handles were now being made out of Catalin, a cast resin. When he left school he worked in the factory full time and his many jobs included making parts for the mine detectors.