leon21

Here's a WW2 MK11 Helmet I spotted on an American website being sold as a Canadian made Brodie, it is a British made helmet with a scarce stamp mark for AMC = Austin Motor Co Ltd of Cowley 1941. The liner has been replaced with a 1949 dated liner and has been painted black on the surface with white F.A letters = First Aid, the inside still shows it's original light brown colour.

Here's two more recent finds photo of Royal Naval parade at HMS Victory training base and barracks Portsmouth c1940s, my uncle Sam Maylor trained there not sure if he is in the photo somewhere or he took this photo. Second photo he is in top row second lad on the right, not sure what type of ship he is on, he never talked about his time in the navy much.

Interesting photo Paul, I see the soldier on the left is wearing Fernglas 08 binoculars and case attached to his belt, looking at the other soldiers at least four other soldiers look to be wearing binocular cases on their belts, were all soldiers issued with binoculars in the front lines or just officers?

Can you tell me Allan were the seam edge meets is it overlapped or butt jointed, if it's overlapped then it's British for sure. It's possible that the letter marks are poorly stamped and are hard to see now with paint covering them, trouble is the Americans also used spilt rivets for a time I've seen helmets with American stamp marks and split rivets on their M1917 helmets, it's a nice looking helmet and in good condition.

Here we have two examples from the Scottish regions of the NFS. Western No1 ( Glasgow ). Western No2 ( Paisley ).

Thanks for the photo's Jack, it's always nice to see the stamp marks on these helmets.

Welcome to the forum Allan, the helmet is most likely British made but the stamp marks are unknown, it's possible that this shell was refurbished into the M1917A1 helmet commonly referred to as the Kelly helmet at some stage in the past. Between 1932 and 1936 the American M1917 and the British MK1 helmets were modified with a new leather liner and web chinstraps and used by the American Army until the new M1 helmet was introduced in 1941. The M1917A1 helmets saw service at Pearl Harbour, and Wake Island and the Philippines. The helmets were painted a sandy colour for the Army and blue for the Navy.

Looking good Jack, what are the dates and makers marks of your Brodie helmets ?

Here's an interesting film Britain's Fire Service at War 1939-1945. Including 400 Canadian Voluntary Fireman who served in Britain from 1942-1945.

Here's another film the Auxiliary Fire Service 1930s

Nice photo jack do you know what area she lived in ?

Portrait photo Jack WW1 period no way to date it without a post date stamp.

Very interesting Jack, nice collection of cards.

Very nice jack, these silks are quite expensive to buy these days, is there a date on the card.

It's unclear jack, my guess is some helmets that sat in army stores were returned back to the factories for repainting, while other new made helmets were painted blue from the start, It's unclear how many police helmets were needed.