William1

Just took another look over there to make sure my criticism was fair. Some photos there, but fewer interior shots and less chapter-and-verse than I remembered. That cap is definitely a wrong un, and no experienced collector would have touched it, but until the equivalent to Karkee Web is created for uniform, it's hard for tyros to know what's what. Bear garden!

£212 - somebody's made an expensive mistake! Personally I think it's worth doing the research before spending the money, but evidently there are people who can't be bothered. There are plenty of pictures of original soft caps on the Internet, and the Great War Forum in particular is a very good reference for this sort of thing.

I don't believe this is an original WW1 cap. At first glance the top photo appears quite convincing, but on closer inspection there are 7 lines of peak stitching instead of the usual 6, the underside of the peak has a fold that shouldn't be there, the WD stamp is amateurish, and the lining is of a weird material that I've never seen in any British WW1 cap in my decades of collecting. A good-ish copy, in my opinion.

Chris It's the insignia of the US 2nd Infantry Division, known sometimes as the Indian Head Division, which included the Marine Brigade. One or two of these have turned up on ebay and no doubt there will be more if you are patient. Recently there was a grouping that included a superb tunic with this embroidered sign on it, but alas someone had spilled green paint on the tunic!! Cheers, W.

Here's another interesting link. Shame there is only one picture: http://ww2.durham.gov.uk/dlimuseum/pgObjects.aspx?&ID=3303&CATCODE=HAT&CATDESC=Hats&SEARCH=

Stuart From what I can see of this helmet, it appears similar in construction to the "Magersfontein helmet" I posted earlier in this thread. The main difference being the interior, which in mine was white above the sweatband and green below. This one looks also to have the same buff leather edging. I don't know whether mine had the eyelet, as there was a white puggaree under the cover which I never removed. The (very!) few surviving chinstraps I've seen had a squared end, not flared like this one which I'd always regarded as typical of WW1. However I am prepared to believe it, so that's another preconception gone. Agreed about most helmet covers being fastened with a top button. The one exception I recall was the Omdurman helmet to 1 GG that Alan Beadle had many years ago, in which the cover simply went over the whole thing and there was no hole. I remember thinking it was odd then, but it was clearly 100% right. Yes Alan Beadle did get good things, and no doubt still does. Not that I would ever buy anything from him without handling if first, but that's another story! [Add: I see I am repeating myself from post 46, sorry.] As we know, the extreme rarity of any of this kit, and in particular other ranks' kit, makes it difficult to be definite about. Whenever something new comes up, it seems to rewrite the rule book. For instance Jock's neckflap with elastic. It shouldn't be right, but I believe it is. Best wishes, W.

Here is an interesting webpage on the subject: http://www.goldiproductions.com/angloboerwarmuseum/Boer70u_hero23_mckerihen1_helm.html

Hi AC This isn't something I recognise, but I don't think it is British. "Brevete" means "patented" in French, so the odds are it is French or Belgian. Message holder seems a reasonable guess though. Best wishes, W.

Jock I don't know exactly what the helmet cover you've got is, in fact we may never know, but I am sure it's an original Victorian item. Thinking back, I probably saw about six of these in the 80s, which is not that many, and any FS helmet covers have always been extremely rare. I've been looking for some time for an OR white helmet for mine, so far without success! Stuart I may have been a bit ambiguous about the 6-piece cover with no band. What I meant to say was, not that covers without bands aren't seen in photos, but that 6-piece ones are very rarely seen, unless they are the Indian pattern, so sorry for any confusion. Re covers with external puggarees, the Guards Brigade were wearing them in 1900 on the march to Pretoria. I have stereoviews showing this and will attempt to post if desired, tho they are not the easiest things to scan, as being curved you have to press them down flat which is not the ideal way to treat them! I've been turning the place over in an attempt to find my FS helmet cover, but with no luck so far. W.

I've seen a few of these, in red. I don't think they are to absorb recoil, as they are just a piece of melton and wouldn't help much. I've always believed they are to keep the tunic clean when the rifle is shouldered.

Lastly, here is a 6-piece cover with stylised puggaree. It is on an Indian helmet but came on its own and might have been an officer's. The nearest thing I've ever seen to the Indian helmet cover outside photos.

Here is a 6-piece cover with no band. It always seemed original to me, though these are very seldom seen (well seldom seen by me) in period photos.

I've been looking for my 4-piece cover but can't lay my hands on it - we moved last year and some bits are still packed away. However here, from photos of my former collection, are some pictures. They are not the best, but better than nowt! First, a 6-piece cover with narrow band, just like the one posted here and as I said, one of a small batch that turned up 20+ years back, which leads me to doubt they are officers'. Though that one does fit remarkably well. Maybe they are pre-Boer War, something I hadn't considered but can see no reason why not.

Hi Jock I remember a few of these covers being around in the 1980s, maybe ten or twelve, and I owned one for a while. I never found a contemporary photo of one in wear (and I looked!), but they seemed to me to have some age and they were not expensive enough at that time to be worth faking and these are very well-made. Eventually I discovered a photo of a blue cloth helmet in the Green Howards museum with one of these covers, supposedly used in the 2nd Boer War because of a shortage of white helmets. That may be correct, but museums have been known to get things muddled. The classic OR helmet cover of the Boer War is either the 4-piece, see an earlier post of mine, or the 6-piece with broad band typically found on the Indian helmet. Yours has a narrow band and would not fit an Indian helmet. I have never seen an original Indian helmet cover - the Australian one posted by Stuart is similar but the true Indian helmet has a continuous band. Those are the classics, but I am sure that other variants exist, especially for officers' helmets. However I think yours is an other ranks' cover. It is unusual for a neck curtain to have elastic, but not impossible, especially if it were worn under the cover. That doesn't sound very neat but I have seen it done. The trouble with these is they are just too easy to make up and it is very, very hard indeed to tell an original one from a copy if old materials have been used. The helmet seems to have age and I like the leather trim and the wear under the rear peak. I just haven't seen enough officers' white helmets to be sure whether or not it is Boer War. I'm interested to know what Stuart thinks. To sum up, I think what you have is a genuine OR helmet cover that may be Boer War, and an uncertain neck curtain that have been added to a helmet. I feel quite sure that these did not start out together. But they are probably as good as you will get nowadays anyway without spending a truly astronomical sum. I have a 4-piece other ranks' cover packed away somewhere. I will see if I can locate it and take some photos. Best wishes, W. [Add: The waisting of the cover, and the narrow band, give it the look of a cover that is meant to have an outside puggaree as opposed to the inside puggaree of the standard white helmet or the papier-mache false puggaree of the Indian helmet. Which would support the blue cloth helmet idea.]

Very interesting. I have never seen one of those before. It has obviously belonged to a doctor, presumably a surgeon, in view of those scalpels. Not something you'd want to see in the hands of an RAMC orderly!

It depends whether you mean the 10th Company or the 10th Battalion. 10 Co was the Sherwood Rangers, serving with the 3rd Battalion IY. 10 Bn comprised 37 and 38 (Bucks), 39 (Berks) and 40 (Oxfordshire) Cos. There's a substantial book on the 3rd Battalion, covering the activities of the 1st and 2nd contingents. There's a book by Gaskell of 38 Co, and Peel of 40 Co, who served in the first contingent but neither served the full year with their company. There is very little information available on the 2nd contingent of the 10th Battalion. Most Boer War IY histories are rare and expensive. It might be possible to help further if I knew the reason for your interest in the 10th IY.

The sign was worn on uniform. A friend of mine used to have a named tunic to a private soldier in the 1st Devons. The tunic had this emblem on it in wool, only a green background with a red stripe. The same sign was painted on the man's steel helmet. Brigade colours perhaps? Too complicated to have separate versions of the sign for every battalion in a Div, I would have thought. A bit anecdotal and third hand I know, but the best I can do! Regards, W.

Hi Mikka I'm pleased you got the Tam. I don't know much about badges so can't say what was sewn onto it. Take your time to find out what badge would have been sewn on. If it turns out that it was used after WW1 (which is possible, even though it is 100% certainly of that period), you might just want to leave it as it is. Now I am off to try out Bing! Congratulations, W.

As an aside for collectors, there's a Canadian uniform grouping on Marway Militaria's site that includes a tunic of the pattern two posts above this one. It's not exactly cheap, but it has been there a while and he might be open to offers.

Hi TS The later Victorian Army was certainly professional, albeit in a rigid and limited sense, when it came to fighting. It was also harsh, unjust and rife with corruption and bullying. If you are interested in the view from the ranks, you might want to get hold of "John Bull's Army From Within" by fomer cavalry NCO Robert Edmondson. Written in 1907, it is an angry, bitter denunciation of all he hated about the Army, and it caused a minor scandal, even though the establisment figures he blames seem to have come out of it relatively unscathed by a combination of ignoring what they could and indignantly denying what they couldn't. Plus ca change... Edmondson tended to raise uncomfortable issues that his superiors would much rather have brushed under the carpet, and you can almost (but not quite) sympathise with them having to manage this barrack-room lawyer who wouldn't play the game but insisted on stirring up trouble. The incident that motivated Edmondson to write his book occurred when serving with the Middlesex Yeomanry in the Boer War, and is a classic case of the officers taking the credit where things went well and blaming the other ranks when they went wrong. Personally I'm inclined to believe Edmondson's version. Amery takes the opposite view in the Times History, but perhaps that's a case of a gentleman believing another gentleman over some upstart from the ranks. Another book by a former Boer War Middlesex Yeoman (serving in the 34th Company; E was in the 35th), this time the amateur Private William Corner, is one of the most detailed and personal Boer War memoir and also highlighted the injustices of the system. His book must have been a particularly uncomfortable read for one of his former officers, Lt. Prideaux-Brune. PB seems to have been chastened and reformed by the experience, and completely redeemed himself as the commander of a Pals Battalion in WW1. C's prose is a bit slow-moving and stilted, but if you allow for that then it is a wonderfully evocative read. I realise this isn't exactly about the "early" Victorian army, but hopefully it will be of some interest anyway.. Best wishes, W.

The NF "V" is normally red. There is a complete West Yorks Boer War period (but made and worn in India) khaki uniform in the National Army Museum with a green puggaree fold, so perhaps this is one possible regiment for your cap.

That white marking is not the date stamp, but the inspector's mark. It is in the correct configuration for WW1, ie. number over W(arrow)D over letter. Don't worry about the lack of a date as they were usually dated with a paper label, which is invariably missing and is not a problem as any collector will accept this as WW1. 6 5/8 is the size, and I don't know what the W in a circle is but it doesn't worry me.

The big giveaway is the four adjustment eyelets and the piece of puttee tape securing them. The lining material is also different from WW2 but that is not so obvious unless you have handled both types. British (or should I say Scottish) WW1 tam o shanters used to be cheap and easy to find but now make at least £200, and this looks quite a good one. I hope the seller still has it! Let us know how you get on.

Paul Nice belt, absolutely nothing wrong with that. I am not sure about the frog though, it has the look that the later ones have, though it's hard to be sure from this picture. Mervyn - that's a particularly nice example on the right. The frogs can be dated from the pattern of rivets, but alas I no longer recall the details! More rivets is later though, I am pretty sure of that. Regards, W.

They are both Boer War period knives. The larger one is the most common pattern and is Army issue. I haven't seen the other type before but there are a number of variants, and it could also be Army issue. It is a bit small but some variants are. By WW1 a tin opener had been added and there was less variation. The standard pattern had chequered grips, though a variant purchased from Canada (and, less commonly, made in the UK) has plain metal sides. Regards, W.