Mk VII "Verner's Pattern" Marching Compass C/|\ 1917 marked

[John R.]

I have had this Mk VII marching compass ever since I was an Officer Cadet with McGill COTC.
It once upon a time had a small leather case but since we were using Pattern 1951 Green webbing I"acquired" a compass pouch(the ones with the felt liner) for it.

It is described as follows:

Top cover'latch' is marked Mk VII just below the two small brass grub screws

The bottom,INSIDE the red rubber ring is marked:

Top Line "CONSOL"
2nd Line TORONTO
C/|\ to the LEFT of the pivot hole on the bottom
1917 below the pivot hole
No("o" is underscored) 1715(7 is overstruck on a 6)

Also has a set of conjoined initials that look like H J something or other to the right of the pivot hole.

The compass is a little gem and I still use it on occasion.All I know is that it appears to be a so called Verner's Patent Mk VII and is smaller than the WW2 Mk III's that we trained on in the Canadian Army in the early 1960's.I have always found it to be every bit as accurate and used it in Field Exercises in Canada and roaming all over Rhodesia in the 1974-1975 time frame.I also have a SILVA military compass that incorporates a 1:50 K roamer but still love the "Consol".

Can anyone supply any info known about them ?Just how'rare' or unusual are Canadian made and marked examples of the Mk VII compasses ? The card seems to be made out of"Mother of Pearl" and the whole compass is in the high 90's percentilewise condition.Anyone have any ideas ? I always preferred it to the heavier Mk3's that we had on issue.Did we make Mk3's in Canada during WWII ?

NB(I later found out that Canadian Kodak Co.(CKC CKC/C)Did indeed make MkIII and Mk IX compasses under licence during WWII)
My thanks for any input in advance.JR

Information

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[Surpmil]

Haven't researched the company, but they also made "Telescopes, Signaller's MkIV or G.S." in Toronto in WWI. A 1917 dated example came up on eBay once. I saved the photos.

REL also made several variations of the Telescope, Signaller's or GS. Several have turned up over the years. I've handled one and it was very well made like all of REL's products. They gave it up as an obsolete design in 1943 - and so it was used for another 40 years in some places!

Also discussed here: https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=56381&page=2

[Badger]

Sounds like a beautiful piece John, rich with history ...

If you ever want to do a write up for the Knowledge Library complete with a photo montage, we'd love to post it.

Here's the WWII marching compass we have in the library now ...

With thanks to ~Angel~, check the England - Milsurp Knowledge Library (click here)

1941 MkIII British WWII Military Prismatic Marching Compass (click here)

Regards,
Badger