WWI Brodie find...

Oddbawl

Oddbawl

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I've been on the prowl for a WWI Brodie for a while, and finally got fed up of coming up dry, so I bit the bullet and got a shell off of FleaBay. The prices on these can get pretty stupid. When it rains, it pours as they say. Not a week later, I find one.
After years of rummaging through flea markets and antique shops, through literally hundreds of WWII era helmets, I found this guy sitting all lonesome on a shelf in an antique shop in Hamilton, 5 minutes before closing time.
WWI era is scarce enough, but the early raw edge is even harder to find. Manufactured by W.Beardmore & Co Ltd of Glasgow.
I'm pretty damn pleased with myself!
I'm going to put a new liner in it, has anybody got experience dealing with Military History Workshop out if the UK? They stock the correct early version liners.


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The IMA liners are WWII versions.
A WWI Brodie without unit marks can fetch a few hundred bucks. Unit marked examples fetch a lot more.
They're much tougher to come by. 95 times out of 100, when you see one for sale, it's a WWII example in the $50 range.
The best indicator is the rivets. If the liner uses a screw in the top, not a rivet, it's post WWI. Also look for split pins like in the pic above on the chinstrap bales. Split pins fastening the bales is a Commonwealth WWI Brodie dead giveaway, though American made ones used round rivets there as well.
The Americans did use some British helmets, but the Commonwealth forces didn't use American made ones.
 
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Oddbawl said:
The IMA liners are WWII versions.
A WWI Brodie without unit marks can fetch a few hundred bucks. Unit marked examples fetch a lot more.
They're much tougher to come by. 95 times out of 100, when you see one for sale, it's a WWII example in the $50 range.
The best indicator is the rivets. If the liner uses a screw in the top, not a rivet, it's post WWI. Also look for split pins like in the pic above on the chinstrap bales. Split pins fastening the bales is a Commonwealth WWI Brodie dead giveaway, though American made ones used round rivets there as well.
The Americans did use some British helmets, but the Commonwealth forces didn't use American made ones.
Click to expand...


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Post Oct 1917 made in UK by Thomas Firth & Sons Ltd, Sheffield



^ Interior

I paid $2 for my Mk1 First World War helmet (bought at "Buckys" in Fredericton North) and I expect the prices have gone up a bit since then. The interior is actually a pretty busy affair of strings/nets/pads and straps.
 
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