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is this from a ww1 first aid kit ? not sure myself


anyone know what this is

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hi guys

i had asked kenny if he had any idea what this is , and he mentioned throwing it out here on the forum.

i inherited this with other items that my grandfather had from ww1 . he served with the c.e.f from 1916 to 1918 . there's 3 glass viles sealed at each end wrapped in a cotton type wrap. might be hard to see in the pic , but each vile still has liquid in them.

my guess has been that it's antiseptic , but i'm guessing , and i can't find anything online to verify

thoughts please

cheers

Greg

 

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Hi Greg, I'm afraid the photos are not showing, not sure what format they are in but could you post them as jpegs?  

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey guys . hope these pics are visible now , let me know . 

 

Image 1.jpg

Image 2.jpg

Image 3.jpg

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Most likely from a medical kit - however, I have come across (in the past) a slightly similar kit that was issued experimentally as part of a poison gas protection kit.

I still have the one I’m talking about in storage and I will look for it - it was similar, came in a tin, but had slightly bulkier pads and the glass vials had a straw coloured liquid in them which I was told was some form of ammonia type solution. Don’t know whether they were designed as a filter or as a wipe following exposure. Mine actually came from an army supply depot in Thatcham, Berks that was being redeveloped.

Unless someone can definitely identify the kit itself the only other way would be to get the liquid identified.

sorry, probably just added another variable to the mystery!

 

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thanks eddieq , appreciate the input . at least we're on the same train o thought, interesting about your kit , if it's gas related , can't be many of those left .

cheers

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When we redeveloped the Thatcham depot we found a pit that had lots of leather pouches with glass vials in them. They turned out to be WW2 ARP kits. 
 

Two kits were issued to selected ARP personnel - one with ‘simulants’ which looked like various chemical warfare agents and others that had actual mustard gas, phosgene, bbc and other CWA’s in them and the ARP wardens were expected to break the glass vials and sniff them so they could recognise the odour of poison gas !!!

I went on a three day trading course to learn how to excavate and contain these kits. I excavated them and they were sealed in barrels  and sent to Porton Down for destruction. Interestingly the waiting list at Porton Down for items being destroyed was 5 -10 years  in 2002/3 - items were still being destroyed from WW1!.

The ones we excavated were the ones with actual CWA’s in them - obviously I didn’t retain any of the kits to collect 😂!

 

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that's really interesting . you must have been exceited to have been part of that. most people only associate chemical weapons with ww1 and not being used in ww2 and post war times, but they were their ready to use. i know the italians used them in ethiopia , and i think franco used them in spain. 

 

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