Mk II sporting a 1941 dated liner produced in China / Hong Kong ?

[Mark K]

Morning Aaron as to this particular example it is indeed magnetic it was one of the first questions I had for the owner of said Mk II...
And the main reason for me to initially suspect that this may have been one of the Hong Kong produced Mk II's was the liner and the other oddities I mentioned above in the construction characteristics such as the over sized chinstrap lug retaining rivets...
I had posted this helmet on a different venue and got in to a bit of a discussion with Roger Lucy who relayed a story to me which I will share here as it has direct bearing on this helmet and or at the least on some of the production characteristics...

"What little I know of Hong Kong Mk.IIs is that they did have a rolled rim,and were magnetic. The bodies were produced by the Chiap Hua Manufactory and they used the Mk.II standard lining and chin-strap. I suspect they may have been intended for civil defence purposes, although local defence forces may have worn them during the siege.
The only example I have ever seen was an extremely rusted shell found in a grave there. It was sent to the War Museum for identification, and I was able to tell them it was not a Canadian helmet, and therefore not likely a Canadian's grave".

So at the least this does give one more clue in the puzzling history of the Hong Kong produced Mk II helmet body I have included a little of the companies pre 1941 history below...
Chiap Hua was founded in 1922 by Mr. Cheng Chek-chee in Shantou. Mr. Cheng then established its subsidiary factory in Hong Kong in 1936, manufacturing mainly steel products. In 1940, Chiap Hua first joined the 3rd Exhibition of Chinese Products under the name Chiap Hua Steelworks, and belonged to the category of appliances, metal ware and toys.

And thank you for the reply Adrian and Leon it is indeed an interesting example that I hope to be able to research further as there is so little known about them and there production characteristics I may enlist the help of a Chinese friend to re write my enquiry in Chinese and re send a new request to Chiap Hua Iron and steel works requesting information..

Regards Mark

[Composite]

Roger knows pretty much everything...............

[Mark K]

Just thought I might add this image to the thread as the details are rather interesting again non conclusive but one can plainly make out that the helmet bodies are rimless Mk II's in design and if one looks at the edges of the helmet on the soldier in the foreground the rim looks quite thick in nature so again raises the question were these Mk II helmet bodies manufactured by using the method of folding under the rim...

Regards Mark