Just got my MkIII Compass back from Trademark London

[Claven2]

Well, I got given an estate MkIII compass made by the Canadian Kodak Company in 1942 and it was in pretty sorry shape. I sent it off to Paul Crespel at Trade Mark London for restoration and I think it came back looking pretty good.

It's not totally period looking any longer though as CKC used a LOT of radium - far more than Francis Barker did in the UK-made MkIII compasses and it was actually at unsafe levels - over 29 micro-sieverts/hr. 3 micro-sieverts/hr is considered hazardous to your health. So I had all the original radium cleaned out and it's now down to about 1.15 micro-sieverts/hr which is a safe level and the lights are now all tritium capsules - not radium paint.

Before:






After:





The Original dial had to be replaced with a new one made by Francis Barker (they are interchangeable - CKC made the MkIII under license from FB). Paul tells me at some point in the compass' history some quartermaster had attempted to "repair" the instrument when the kerosene damping fluid leaked out, probably in the 1950's before the compass left Canadian service. The "gasket" was redone using putty and the ham-fisted oaf had also cracked the dial. The restoration also required a new viewing glass as the original had been scratched up with a screwdriver from the bad repair job.

Here's the original dial and glass:





Compass has an interesting history. It was issued to a Captain Haddad of the Royal Canadian Medical Corps. He was a doctor who served from 1939 to 1945 in both Europe and Africa and again in the Korean War for the duration. I got a few items from his estate when a friend and I were asked to clear out the milsurp stuff by the widow. Supposedly this compass was his from WW2 and stayed with him even after he left the service. I have the original webbing case for it with his name inscribed on the back.



I also got a nice Fairbairn Sykes dagger, some desert warfare goggles and some original What Price Victory pamphlets from the same "cache".

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