Sheffield made Bowie

[Nibody]

Step-dads father carried this (we believe) through a fair part of WW2, and also when he moved to East Africa for a period post war.

We THINK he was an officer in the Royal Engineers, his brother in law was Sir Frank Whittle, and we believe he saw action on D-Day. He never talked about the war.. ever. But held a fanatical hatred of Germans until he died in his 90's. Dont think this was standard issue, probably a private purchase. I know these are still made or were till recently- anyone know much about them? Sorry the pics are rubbish, taken with the mobile!

[Adrian Stevenson]

It is indeed a private purchase knife from one of the best known Sheffield makers. This style of hilt was very popular at the time.

The connection with Sir Frank makes it even more interesting.

Cheers, Ade.

[Nibody]

It is indeed a private purchase knife from one of the best known Sheffield makers. This style of hilt was very popular at the time.

The connection with Sir Frank makes it even more interesting.

Cheers, Ade.

Sir Frank married James's sister Dorothy, but eventualy left her for his secretary. Her official title was Dorothy Lady Whittle, but prefered just Dot.. god forbid anyone calling her Lady Whittle!! She was a lovely woman, had the pleasure of meeting her many times.

The great shame is I know there were some original maps in James's estate relating to the Normandy invasions, but they were taken by my Dads nephew.. I could have slapped my dad not having those, but I guess the knife meant more to him.

[Time Bandit]

I have a couple of these with the plastic/fibre type pommel and never really gave it much thought over the years and just presumed they were a variation to the usual aluminium (or occasionally brass) pommels.
However, only recently on another forum someone was asking for info about a knife they had found and mention was made about the fibre pommels and what happened was that during the war aluminium was no longer used (obviously more pressing uses for it) and was replaced by the fibre. Someone contacted Reg Cooper (the knife maker) who worked after his Army service for Clarkes (I think it was?), who owned the William Rodgers name, making these knives and he said he could remember using the fibre for about maybe 4 or 5 years after the war.
So as a rough date you could say the knife was made most likely during the war (not sure the date they stopped using aluminium) or just after it.

My two...one is the type with a bottle opener, t'other ain't!