MKII NFS 1941 section 26

[Jerry B]

I picked this up yesterday on an early finish on a job in Cardiff, a pretty good NFS MKII with decals for sector 26, for Liverpool I think, period (?) repainted in matt black. Liner is a Vero 1941 but the shell markings are only partly visible and are not clear enough to be certain, but Rubbery Owen & co seems likely?

[tinlid]

Interesting they've painted it black, as khaki green was their colours.

[Jerry B]

Interesting they've painted it black, as khaki green was their colours.

As I mentioned it is over painted, but I have no idea why (or when for that matter), perhaps for post war use as I seem to remember seeing fire mans helmets in black, though when that was introduced, if it was, I do not know.

[tinlid]

I think from 1947 they went back to County fire brigades, with black paint & their county badge on the front.
So at first glance you think that's what it might be, but I think they did away with the NFS decal.
It's probably one of those unknown ones which we don't have the info for, & is all WW2 painted.

[Jerry B]

Another oddity then, overpainted black but with the decals still showing, amazing how much is not known even with items like this. I sure I have seen other examples with black paint and decals.

Thanks as always for chipping in with your knowledge and opinions Aaron.

[Mark K]

A little on the odd side with the black repaint Jerry compared to the other examples I have seen but for me makes this particular Mk II a tad more interesting and one I would be happy to have in my own collection.

Regards Mark

[Jerry B]

It came from a dealer in Cardiff who I have been buying from for circa 20 years, an honest guy and he had bought a big collection of helmets recently, which included the MKIII I posted a few months back. He also had a nice home front MKII with smooth greenish paint that with hindsight I should have grabbed whilst I was there. He had an A marked ambulance, two police and a few others for sale and his own collection of HG and other home front helmets is the best I have ever seen and is on display in the shop. I must remember to take some pics of it next time I visit him.

[Steelhead10]

Very nice I like it, didn't they place the number on the brim or is it done by the person who owns the helmet?

[Jerry B]

Very nice I like it, didn't they place the number on the brim or is it done by the person who owns the helmet?

I saw one today on a blueygrey shell with no sign it ever had a district number on it, just the NFS decal, so who knows with these, not me.

[tinlid]

Maybe un-numbered NFS helmets were for headquaters staff, & ones without the NFS decal were people who worked for the NFS but were not firemen?
Or there was a shortage of the decals at that time when they were issued with their helmets.