COLLECTING HELMETS

Although Home Service helmets frequently appear in auction catalogues, they do so at high prices. Surprisingly, considering there were more of them, those worn by other ranks seem to be scarcer than their officer counterparts. JC Militaria currently has a British officer’s blue cloth Home Service helmet with case for £1,275. An incomplete other ranks helmet was also listed on eBay for £485.

Helmet plates too make regular appearances on lists, but again these now command high outlays. Some time during the late 1960s, large quantities of other ranks helmet plates, almost for every regiment, appeared for sale. All came with a choice of Queen’s or King’s crown backplates, and with the centre of your choice. All were in mint condition. The initial feeling among collectors was that these were in fact modern reproductions. But they were genuine. Their source? The shelves of some army stores, where they had sat awaiting issue for more than 70 years. Highly recommended is Volume 1 of Head-dress Badges of the British Army by Arthur L Kipling and Hugh L King in which more than 200 helmet plates are illustrated.

An officer’s helmet with white metal fittings and plate suggesting a possible volunteer item. The regiment had four volunteer battalions, two in Hertfordshire, one from Bedfordshire and another from Huntingdonshire