Nice Unissued Canadian Despatch Riders Helmet

[Mark K]

Morning Gents I have been home on the Island for the last few days and was lucky enough to crash in to this Canadian Despatch Rider helmet yesterday in my travels and I just could not leave it behind as nice examples of these are starting to get hard to come by and after some minor dickering over price with the seller she came home with me
They are known in the Canadian Service as the Helmet, Crash,Motor Cyclist Steel or A 15550 I would not call it mint but it is in unissued condition and shows some light wear do to storage and handling and the remnants of a sticker or a decal on the outer shell the liner and shell are both dated 1944 the shell is a Mk I steel N# 3 and was manufactured by The Canadian Motorlamp Co. and is marked C.L./C 1944 with the capital letter S impressed in the rear of the shell denoting the size as a small the shell is painted matt khaki green #3 which is correct according to the First Army Routine Order of the 27 July 1941
The liner is in decent condition as well with a few blemishes do to storage the sorbo rubber is still quite supple and pliable the liner as well is dated 1944 and was manufactured by Backstay Standards and bares there company logo BS with in a circle it is in a size 7 there is a C-Broad Arrow stamp hidden behind the leather on the front crash pad and clearly evident in the images is a sticker denoting she was made in Canada .
Thanx for looking all comments are welcome.

Thought I would add an image of the set of Canadian P-37 Despatch Rider gators I just acquired earlier in the week as a point of interest.

Regards Mark K

[CBH]

Nice helmet , I missed out on one of these many years ago . Should have got it back when they were very cheap ! Also a good friend of mines father was a despatch rider in Italy , but I don't think he still has any of his uniform . He's still alive and in his 90's , tough as nails . We loving refer to him as Major Hopple , why I do not know .
I hardly recognized you , what with the new avatar and all !
Cheers Chris

[Mark K]

Thanx Chris for the comments my friend as my interests have changed quite a bit in the last year trying to focus more on the Canadian and commonwealth side of collecting I thought it a good time to update my avatar to something more appropriate one of my favorite pics from Juno Beach.

Regards Mark K

[tinlid]

Great condition DR helmet, & well marked. For me, interesting to see the difference between your Canadian one & Brit HSDR's. Yours having rubber sorbo padding while Brit ones have fibre, did all Canadian HSDR'S come dark brown?
Brit HSDR's first came painted khaki green in 1942 until sometime in 1944 when they were painted dark brown.

[Mark K]

Thanx Aaron your opinion is greatly appreciated as for the the color to the best of my knowledge the HSDR'S only ever came out in the one color khaki #3 now this is not to say for an instance I am 100% correct as I am still researching this type of helmet as they are quite new to me please check out this link I think you will find it rather interesting and informative as it explains the history of the Canadian HSDR helmet from it's inception as well as noticeable differences between the British and Canadian variations.(RCSigs.ca - RC Sigs Militaria Site - Despatch Rider's Helmets) Which is an excerpt from the book by Roger Lucy Tin Lids

Regards Mark K

[tinlid]

Your right about the colour (khaki green) first glance it looked dark brown.

[Mark K]

Thanx Aaron I was starting to question what sanity I have left

Regards Mark K

[Jerry B]

This really is a lovely example Mark, I must add a HSDR to my collection one of these days.

[ruddersrangers44]

No nothing really about these but I do have eyes Mark and that is one seriously nice looking wartime piece of headgear,well done mate..............

[Walkwolf]

...after some minor dickering over price with the seller she came home with me .....

And your wife is ok with this.........?