British Brodie Helmet

Good afternoon war heroes,

I have come across a British brodie helmet at an antique store. Im trying to identify which version it is.
I know that most brodie helmets are WW1 era and were either retrofitted or upgraded for WW2. The lot of of them were also sold off to Danish military afterwards and they mixed and matched all the parts. I'm between this being a Mark 1 Star or Mark 2.
It has few identifying marks such as a date stamp 9 6 1942 and a number 54 on the inside.

If anyone one can shed some light and help me figure this out that would be great.
Bellow are some pictures I've taken.

Thank you.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spike17spiegel

Good afternoon war heroes

---

?????

I think that the date stamp on the helmet shell is the manufacture date (of the shell). I don't know if any WW1 British steel helmets had the additional steel edging trim to them as all the examples I've seen have had just a raw edge. I use to know a chap who spent almost the whole of WW2 working in a factory producing steel helmets and his main job was making the edging. The factory, I believe, was originally in London but got moved to North Wales as a safer location from bombing. At the end of the war the chap decided that North Wales was a nice place to live and so settled down, got married and had a family.

Plenty of informative sites on the internet if you google 'WW2 British Helmets'.

This site was quite useful;

British WW1/WW2 Brodie Helmet Maker Stamps - Helmets and Headgear - Treasure Bunker Forum

There was a bit of a scare here in the U.K. a year or two ago concerning some of the early British steel helmets which may have contained Asbestos in part of the lining. I don't recall hearing when this material stopped being used or if it was used on any of the WW2 helmet linings. It may have only related to the WW1 helmets. The story cropped up at the same time as the scare concerning possible Asbestos in some of the older gas mask filters.

I can't help thinking about all those school science classes in which we were given asbestos and mercury to play with back in the 1950s and '60s. Now, just the words spoken aloud causes a general panic amongst the under-60 population.

I have a little bottle of Mercury here if anyone wants it...

used to love playing with mercury (quicksilver) as a kid! :madsmile:

A very good website here that shows the differences between the WWI types, the reissued WWI type and the WWII type:

Military - Britain - The Brodie Helmet and its derivatives

Have you found these posts helpful and informative, spike,? Also I'm sure that I'm not alone in being slightly mystified as to why you addressed us as "war heroes" at the start of your first post?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Flying10uk

"war heroes"

---

Thus my question marks, post 2...but he hasn't been back since the question. Guess he'll come back in a week or two and see if there's any bites.