Vickers helmet camo?

[Gunny Hartmann]

Out of interest, doe's anybody know the story of the production of the "Vickers" contracted helmets ?

Gary J.

THE IRISH

[Tinhat]

Here's a couple of links that give the basic story of the Irish helmet
Military Collection of Peter Suciu
Irish M27

Basically, as part of war reparations following WWI, most of war related industrial equipment was stripped out of Germany, including the presses and tooling for helmets. Vickers made these under contract for Irish government.

I would definitley try and strip the paint back, but do it carefully, it looks like you have an army helmet under there and not the white painted CD helmet, as the inside of the rim is normally painted white as well.
These are very collectable and I'm one of those that turned his nose up when they were 50 pound and regretted it ever since.

[noelh]

Out of curiousity does anyone know which barracks is the one where the spare helmets were supposedly bulldozed into the foundations back in the seventies? I would guess somewhere in the Curragh.

[Gary J]

Here's a well known period colour snap of the Irish Army in the 20's wearing the "Vickers" helmet.

.. I'd guess it wasn't a popular helmet by the way some of the helmets are sitting !!

Gary J.

[noelh]

Probably not popular but also there is also the Irish soldiers tendency to express his individuality in the wearing headgear. Then of course the liners only came in large, medium and small and from the looks of the photos the helmets were issued with little regard to actual head size. That was the case in my time when we were handed random helmets from stores. Fortunately I have a fairly standard head!