THETFORD NORTHERN IRELAND HELMET - breakdown

[Greg Pickersgill]

I recently acquired a Thetford Northern Ireland helmet, known as a riot helmet, and frequently seen with a visor attached, which I do not have. That's almost the only thing I know about these helmets; it is not even entirely clear when they were produced/introduced, or even when they were withdrawn from service, although we can guess at some time in the middle Seventies - probably - as the introduction. Possibly not long before, or even at the same time as, the Helmet, Parachutists, Light Weight came into service, but the only clue to support that is that both were produced by Thetford Moulded Products and both have the signature Thetford flap chinstraps.

When I got it I saw that one of the side nut&bolts of the chinstrap mounting was missing and that the other had been replaced by a non-standard fitting. That was enough to encourage me to go into a complete disassembly.

All the photographs are of my dismantled helmet - if you want to see the thing in its full glory you will find displays of several examples here - Composite Helmet, Ballistic helmets, Military helmets UNITED KINGDOM, UK HELMETS, BRITISH helmet, Kevlar helmet.

First the shell - its general shape is similar to the Para helmet though it is certainly not identical, and on a level surface sits very differently. It is also considerably heavier; on my scale I get 806g for the medium Para shell and 1066g for the medium NI helmet. It feels heavier than that, and has a dense structure like coarse ceramic rather than plastic. Looking at the interior - see the detail pic of the interior showing the visor mounting - it is a very coarse-grained material and has a rough, almost unfinished, appearance. The shell has a particular dull clunking noise when tapped which reminded me of a Bristol helmet (written up here as 'Bristol brick' a year or so back) and there's a good reason for that, for when I took the liner out I found a totally unexpected label beneath, reading BRISTOL ARMOUR - SHELL, ANTI-RIOT HELMET. This was genuinely stunningly surprising, and of course the reason why the feel of the shell reminded me of the Bristol Armour Grade 17 helmet. I'm not aware of anything saying that the NI was - as it appears to be from this example - a collaboration between Thetford (the liners and straps) and Bristol (the shell) so this was new news entirely.







Now the liner - it is a complicated structure around a definately flimsy polystyrene liner cap. The entire cradle, with the white headband and the black plastic rear adjustment band, can be removed by loosening the simple cord tensioner at the back, slipping out the plastic adjustment band, and then unthreading the cradle tension cord, allowing the poly cap to slip out. (This is best done very carefully!). It seems a complex affair, many parts and surely not quick to manufacture. The poly cap itself is not a thing of beauty or precise manufacture - one picture here shows that it is clearly not symmetrically curved at the top. The cutbacks at the sides are to accept the liner straps, the slits at the rear for the plastic adjustment band. You will also see the rear nut&bolt in place, for illustration. The liner has its label in place and this certainly shows THETFORD MOULDED PRODUCTS - HELMET, COMBAT, N.I. PATTERN, which is
obviously interesting as Bristol and Thetford refer to the helmet in slightly different terms.










This is the set of liner straps - difficult to illustrate properly so refer back to the pics of it installed on the poly cap.




The chinstrap set - at first glance the same as on the Para Light Weight, and certainly the general design and concept, even the colour, is the same, but the NI flaps are cut larger than those on the Para helmet, and the fittings are sewn in different locations. Same Velcro adjustment tapes, but the NI has a very simple metal chinstrap catch rather than the interlocking plastic pieces of the Para helmet.





Lastly, the nuts and bolts. I had always believed that the NI helmet used the same nuts and bolts as the Para helmet, so when I saw what I expected at the rear and something different at one side so assumed it was a non-standard replacement. This turned out to be completely wrong. The boreholes for the two side fittings and the one at the rear are different - the side fittings being distinctly smaller. The small 'replacement' nut and bolt remaining in one side was actually the right one! And more than that even though the rear nut and bolt more closely resemble the usual Para parts they are actually different, the bolt being distinctly longer, as is the sleeve of the receiving nut. More assumptions into the dustbin of history and new information gathered. Exciting.

[Composite]

Jees Greg has it taken you all this time to just find that out?!

..seriously...what a find!!!! - here's mine....




but next time you trick me into dismantling one of my pride and joys mention the little side spring clip things!!!!!!! GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!


....sure looks like a collaboration to me.....

well done and thank you.

[Composite]

...obviously that should've read "here's mine"........Jees, I'll being using "your" next instead of "you're" !

[Greg Pickersgill]

but next time you trick me into dismantling one of my pride and joys mention the little side spring clip things!!!!!!! GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Hmm. So that's what that leftover bit was. I wonder where it goes? Fraught with peril, this disassembly thing.

Excellent that we have confirmation of mine not being a weird one-off. Good.

[Greg Pickersgill]

Here are shots of the side, front and rear of a Para Light and the NI helmet (both medium size). Obviously the general form is the same, except where it isn't.



And a quick comparison of the chinstrap flaps - not the best image as I don't have a set of Para straps loose, but it can be seen how the plan is essentially the same, but the cut is different.

[Composite]

'been re-visiting this thread....v.interesting.

The shell of the NI lid is clearly different (material) to the later Para lid (more clothy/weavey inside). Now, re the Green vinyl straps....I have them on an NI lid AND on a Para......and there's photo evidence supporting that they were fitted to both (and probably sliced-off both too!). So, at the start at least, the Greenies were fitted to both shells.....but the shells were made by different makers ...is that what we've established? Indeed, have we now got THE list of makers?

[BlackCat1982]

Thanks for re-energising this thread otherwise I'd never have found it. Great, clear photos of the take down of the Thetford.

[Greg Pickersgill]

'been re-visiting this thread....v.interesting.

The shell of the NI lid is clearly different (material) to the later Para lid (more clothy/weavey inside). Now, re the Green vinyl straps....I have them on an NI lid AND on a Para......and there's photo evidence supporting that they were fitted to both (and probably sliced-off both too!). So, at the start at least, the Greenies were fitted to both shells.....but the shells were made by different makers ...is that what we've established? Indeed, have we now got THE list of makers?

We need to be more specific here - too many people (including me before I was able to compare&contrast with one in hand) think that the Para LW and the NI are essentially identical. They're not.

The straps may be similar but they are cut quite differently, more obvious in real life than in my rather clumsy photo. There is a different catch for the chinstrap. The shells are not only different shapes but made of different materials; the PLW feels 'plastic' (for want of a better word), whereas the NI has a more hard, bricklike, ceramic feel which is explicable as soon as you see that Bristol label and rcompare it to other Bristol shells. Even the actual strap bolts are different and include a peculiar little metal spring thing which is hard to get back in and probably unnecessay anyway (I hope...)

More differences than similiarities, almost. Wish they weren't so damned hard to find. One wonders how many there ever were, but alas no-one seems to know these days. I tried Centurion, the current version of Thetford Moulded Products, and they had no useful archives. Bristol Armour vanished long ago.

[Composite]

Thanks Greg.

So we have a collection of similarly shaped helmets (OK so the NI is slightly different)....

We have the:-

- Thetford /Bristol NI Helmet...a uniquely shaped helmet with a material-like inside
- The shiny bolted early Lightweight Para (smooth)
- The non shiny-bolted similarly-shaped Lightweight Para (textured)

......correct????

....we have the “NI” name for the first one....and “helmet parachutist Lightweight” (or similar) for the second and third......are we calling these Mk1 and Mk2...?

[Greg Pickersgill]

Thanks Greg.

So we have a collection of similarly shaped helmets (OK so the NI is slightly different)....

We have the:-

- Thetford /Bristol NI Helmet...a uniquely shaped helmet with a material-like inside
- The shiny bolted early Lightweight Para (smooth)
- The non shiny-bolted similarly-shaped Lightweight Para (textured)

......correct????

....we have the “NI” name for the first one....and “helmet parachutist Lightweight” (or similar) for the second and third......are we calling these Mk1 and Mk2...?

I dunno boss. OK, the 'Northern Ireland' is probably safe for what we knw as the NI helmet, as even though there is no reference to this on the Bristol label (just 'anti-riot') it is pretty obviously the NI helmet.

The para helmet is more of a thing; early labels are 'Helmet Parachutists Light Weight' and then later simply 'Helmet Parachute'. Other than the unquestionably bogus 'M76' thing there has never been anything else I know of, no Mk1 or whatever. The only reasonably comprehensive text on these helmets is in Oliver Locke's BRITISH AIRBORNE HEADDRESS which doesn't mention any change of designation accompanying the change in shell and liner or whatever. But then he also heads the section with ''76 PATTERN' which causes some drop in confidence. (I did ask him about this and he had no information to confirm it was ever named thus - I think he was going with what he believed as common usage, ie 'collector bullshit'.)

Personally I think that if we start using Mk1 or Mk2 we are in danger of perpetuating another myth, and there's dozens of those in helmet collecting already and they're hard to uproot. I know its a bit vague and woolly but I'm staying with either the designations as given on the labels or just Early or Later production. Or something. I dunno boss. Not Mk anything anyway.

I wish someone could come forward with better knowledge on this. There is a guy on a FB forum who seem to genuinely know a lot but he seems to stick to that one forum exclusively. FB is a bit of an enclosed world.