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I'm sure Stuart is right. Apologies to other members for inadvertantly straying away from the purpose of this area . Patrick

Stuart Depending upon how much of a buying mood you are in a Lincolnshire Imperial Yeomanry lance cap might appeal. EBAY UK no.260558929000. Patrick

Stuart These forage caps are excellent! More, please. Just heard that we're about to be invited to a wedding in Melbourne in August. Not sure if we'll be going, given distance, cost and time, but, if we do, I'd love to see your collection 'in the flesh'. Patrick

Hi Smon I followed up your suggestion and have found the book for the grand total of £4.29, post free! Delivery awaited. Thanks Patrick

Hi Jonas Sorry for not responding to your post. Thanks for this- I'll look out for a copy of this book. Patrick

Hi Stuart Your comment about the E Riding Imperial Yeomanry lance cap illustration in Carman rang a bell, so I had a look at my copy. It has a 'Corrigendum' pasted in at the bottom of p.43 which says 'Illustrations of plates 18 and 39 have been transposed'. The title for plate 18 on p.43 says 'Lincolnshire Imperial Yeomanry lance cap c.1907', but actually shows the E Riding lance cap. Vice versa for plate 39 on p.85. Patrick

Has anybody tried restitching a cavalry helmet chinstrap. Any advice-apart from 'don't'? Patrick

And finally... Last three helmets 1. Suffolk Yeomanry Cavalry-trooper's. Worn 1876-1883. Unlike other regiments' Albert pattern helmets in that it doesn't have the foliated strips to the peak 2.1st Dragoons - trooper This has a very long thick plume, but it's a modern replacement I was able to get made 3.Sixtenth Lancers -OR Cap lines wrapped around stand Thanks for all the comments and the additional information. Doing these postings has prompted me to do decent photos and also to check out my insurance! Any additions to the collection will depend upon funds, space and my wife's tolerance levels- not necessarily in that order! Patrick

Lost the end of the last post for some reason! Was going to say that I bought the 2nd West Yorks Yeomanry helmet shown above, which was a nice outcome to a bit of work inspired by a helmet and its owner. Hope all this is of interest . Patrick

This is the final home service helmet, and one with a history, as I outline below. It is to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. It's the first home service helmet I bought which was some years ago at which time I didn't realise that the furniture should be gilt. It is actually back to the base metal, but, as you can see from the photo, it polished up well for the photos-only the second time I've done this. The other thing I didn't realise is that it's a green-cloth , rather than a blue-cloth. The guy I bought some of my other home service helmets from pointed out that Light Infantry regiments had green cloth helmets and showed me one of his, and when I sat mine alongside the line blue cloths I could see there was a difference, although it's very difficult to discern a green colour when looking at it in isolation. What's really interesting, however, is that it came in a carrying tin named to G C Wynne, 2nd Batallion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and the initials G.C.W. are inked on the liner To cut a long story short I did some quick internet research which, for reasons which will become obvious, turned up quite a bit on the owner, Captain G.C. Wynne, and last year I was able to write a dissertation on his life, work and influence as part of a Masters in War studies at Glasgow University. Photo of Wynne in 1913 The next bit is an excerpt from the Introduction to the dissertation, which gives a brief summary; "He was initially a professional soldier, serving before the First World War in Ireland and travelling and studying in Germany. He saw active service with the BEF in 1914, taking part in the retreat from Mons, fighting and being taken prisoner at Le Cateau in one of his regiment’s most famous actions, and then spent the rest of the war as a Prisoner of War, during which period he wrote a fascinating journal recounting his experience of the first weeks of the war. He then joined the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence and became one of the main authors of the Official British Histories of the First World War, although in the 1940’s he disagreed with the Director, Edmonds, over Haig’s responsibility for Passchendaele to such an extent that he refused to have his name included as the author of the relevant Official History. He also wrote extensively in his own right, publishing a book, If Germany Attacks in 1940, based on an extremely controversial series of articles he wrote in the late 1930’s, which traced the development of German defence and attack tactics and bitterly criticised the inability or unwillingness of the British commanders to learn from their own repeated tactical failures, particularly in mounting costly and unsuccessful attacks. His views on the latter topic provoked mixed reactions at the time but a number of recent writers fully acknowledge his contribution to our understanding of the respective German and British tactics and agree with his criticisms of British command methods and tactics. During the Second World War, in his role as Official Historian, he spent time in North Africa, and he continued to write on and debate military history and tactics well into the late1950’s, when he had a major disagreement over his view of Schlieffen’s role in the development of German defence doctrine with his contemporary, Basil Liddell Hart, the famous military historian and commentator, who was otherwise an admirer and supporter of Wynne’s. It is noteworthy, however, that, whilst he was a scholar of war, both his wartime journal and his later writings leave the reader in no doubt that he was no lover of war." Just to round things off, the dissertation won a prize which turned out to be a cheque with which I was able to buy the 2nd Weat

Clive An excellent collection. Thanks for the posts so far. I particularly like the various caps, which are things which don't normally grab me. Do all four corners of your room contain headgear? Patrick

Simon Thanks very much for posting the photo. This plumecertainly looks longer than usual , but the one on my helmet seems longer still . I wonder if some manufacturers made plumes long, to be cut back to suit unit taste, and this one wasn't cut? Is the book from which the photo comes still available? Patrick

Here are two more home service helmets. I will post the last one later, together with a history of its owner, which I was able to research. 1. 3rd Volunteer Batallion, The Bedfordshire Regiment.QVC. One of my favourite helmets. Fittings are in white metal, not silvered. 2.Manchester Regiment .KC Another helmet in excellent condition. This helmet, along with the KRRC and S Staffs, came from the same source, a private collector, who lives not far from me, and has a large and exceptionally high quality collection. Most of his helmets are to Scottish regiments and he had decided to specialise in these, so was prepared to let some of his English regiment helmets go. Fired by his example, I decided to go all British, too, and killed two birds with one stone by financing the purchases by selling two pickelhaubes and an Austrian helmet. As you might imagine, I'm delighted with all three helmets. Patrick

Stuart, Well, that cover's something different! Presumably it was designed to reflect the sun as well as to protect the neck. Wearing a helmet must have been incredibly hot ,even with this. Would the cover have been worn with the plume, or did they take advantage of the extra ventilation through the plume holder? Any idea if the covers were effective? I had the chance to buy a very good example of this helmet recently from a private source , but even allowing for the fact that they come along once in blue moon, I couldn't stretch as far as needed to secure it. Patrick

Stuart I don't think it's blackened bronze; the base metal is definitely light/white. I have blackened brass Rifle Corps OR cap badges in my collection, presumably blackened bronze would look similar to these? I attach another photo giving another view of the fittings. The lighting makes them look brighter than they really are, but I think the underlying whiteness is still clear.. Interesting to hear about the length of your FLH -plume is it an officer's or a trooper's helmet? Now that I have the FLH helmet I'd really like a Lothian and Berwickshire Yeomanry Cavalry /Lothians and Border Horse helmet, but I've nevr seen one for sale. Regards Patrick

Simon, Thanks very much for the info on the plume. I've never been able to find anything about standards/regulations for plume lengths, although the plumes shown in David Rowe's book,which are mainly to officers, generally don't go beyond or much beyond the bottom of the rear visor. Unfortunately, the FLH helmet in his book doesn't have a plume. Regards Patrick

Stuart The furniture is actually the same colour as the plate i.e. grey/black.Would gun-metal be the right description? I don't know how it's done, presumably over white-metal, as the you can see white metal highlights around the rim of the spike cruciform and it also shows on the edge of the peak and on the raised areas on the rosettes. It's essentially the same as on the plate where the edges of the cross and the lettering look white against the grey. A very classy helmet. Patrick

Thanks for the kind comments. I've had a go at photographing the rest of the collection - 9 others. Three shown here 1. 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry officer's helmet . Note that the central rose , which should be silver (for the white rose of Yorkshire) is in fact gilt. Expert advice (David Rowe and Stuart Bates) is that this could well be original , depending on the whim of the C.O. Second photo shows the distinctive lion head rosettes , like those of lance caps. Gilt is a bit darker than on photos- too much light! 2. Fife Light Horse trooper's helmet. Not in top condition, but still pretty good.I bought it in very sleepy condition i.e. covered in years of tarnish. Unfortunately this hid some rubbing to the skull and some surface marks. However, these helmets are few and far between, so I'm still happy with it. It has a very long plume. Any views on plume lengths? 3.5th Dragoon Guards trooper's helmet. I bought it, knowing it had the wrong(black) plume on it, but was fortunate to find an original correct, white over red plume, a few weeks later. Stitching on chinstrap is completely shot , and the skull shows signs of having been around a long time, but it has loads of character Patrick

Spurred on by Coldstream and Stuart Bates , I will post photos of my collection , which is a mix of infantry officers' home service helmets and cavalry helmets. Starting with two which I bought recently, and have good photos for - taken by the seller and much better than mine will be! First is a QVC King's Royal Rifle Corps home service helmet, a type which I think was only worn by the regiment for a few years. Immaculate condition. Second is a QVC South Staffs home service helmet. Re-gilded in the 1990s and looks very good -not as shiny as the picture suggests. Body very good and liner immaculate. Trying to work out how to add photos, so forgive any glitches. Patrick

Stuart and Coldstream Happy to post my collection, but my first attempts have failed: I think because I'm limited to 150k, according to the notes, and my existing photos are all a lot bigger. I'll have to find a way round this.Any ideas? Patrick