Canadian Mk II Flashed to the Police Department

[Mark K]

Morning Gents I came upon this little gem yesterday and I could not resist as Canadian Mk II home front civilian helmets flashed to any other services than the ARP do not come on the market very often it was a must for my collection and will fit in well with my other police helmets.
The helmet body is a 1942 G.S.W DP&H and is constructed from mild steel so meant strictly for home front use it is sporting a 1942 VMC liner in a size 7 1/8 and looks to be in original condition with a few small nicks and scrapes.
It is thought to have been one of the Mk II helmets that were issued out to officers of the Montreal City Police Dept and by the numeral 5 painted on the rear skirt I would say it is safe to assume there were at least four others.
There is very little period evidence in the form of images on the net showing any Canadian police service wearing helmets of any sort during WW II and or early post war alike I contacted a friend that collects Mk II police helmets and he is of the opinion it is war time issued.
For the most part post war helmets from any of the police forces are not white typical they are light olive drab in color as found on Canadian Mk II's produced after mid 1942 and often have a replaced top screw....a hardware store steel one as it seems Civil Defense often got helmets and shells through the system but not brass screws... plus often the postwar shells for CD were combat shells, not DP&H).

I have added a couple of extra images of my other police helmets and Military Police helmets from my collection just to show some of the variations that are out there.

Regards Mark

[tinlid]

Were they often painted white, & or is this just for an officer(rank).
Interesting they've painted it inside white as well, as if here's a batch of helmets deliberately for purpose.

[Mark K]

Hi Aaron there is very little information available in any of my referance material and or on line I had a bit of a discussion last night with a friend that has collector police helmets for ages he informed me that white painted police helmets were of the norm for WWII issued beyond that I can't really tell you much more I will try and see what I can dig up over the next few days.

Regards Mark

[SHINDENKAI]

Great lids, Mark !

I really like them.

Cheers!
Taka

[Mark K]

Thanks Taka there are a couple other variations to police helmets I would like to add a friend has one flashed to the Halifax Dock Police and a couple of Railway Police helmets that would look way better on my shelf .

Regards Mark

[Jerry B]

Another lovely pick up Mark, very nice. Perhaps for parade/special function use? For use during blackouts, to make them more visible?

[Mark K]

Thanks Jerry there is just so little information out there on Canadian Mk II Police helmets I do agree with you though that the color white would have definitely made the wearer more visible in a crowd and or make for easier identification.

Regards Mark