Pith Helmets

[Mike_Oettle]

Fascinating to see the variety of shapes among those pith helmets.
I still like the style of the type of hat worn (in white) by the British during the Zulu War and (in khaki) during the South African War.
My grandfather was issued one of the SA War variety when he was a magistrate, and my father occasionally wore it while on the farm.
The South African Army and South African Police wore the Wolseley pattern for many years. In fact if I recall correctly the SAP mounted unit was still wearing it for escort duties during the 1970s and ’80s.
In the SA Army, coloured flashes were worn on the left-hand side of the helmet – red and black for the Military Police, green and black for infantry, and so on. Brass badges were in some instances worn over these flashes.
During the Second World War, most regiments wore Wolseley pattern helmets, but the kilted regiments wore tammies or glengarries. When in action, everyone wore “soup plate” steel helmets.
In the Western Cape, postmen wore the Wolseley pattern helmet in white with a flashy silver badge in front showing a pillarbox within a star/sun emblem, with a red liner behind the badge.
The style I like least is the one associated with Vietnam.
And I do think Jamie (Panache) cuts a dashing figure in his pith helmet!
Regards,
Mike

[Lallans]

For future reference, or perhaps there is a photo on the net somewhere, I can give some advice on what NOT to wear in the pith helmet line, and that is the model worn by the young romantic lead in the 1930 version of the film "Trader Horn," which ran on the Turner Classic Movie Channel earlier this week. The man had the most laughable looking pithy object on his head I've ever seen on a human being, from certain angles anyway. He looked like a three year old who had put on Daddy's hat. I missed the film's opening, or rather my DVR did, so it may well have been intended to make him look like a greenhorn but, intentionally funny or not, it was dead pathetic to see him in it. And of course, hilarious.

[Leonard (MacGregor)Tinker]

For the record Uncle Ho and Vo Nguyen Giap first whipped the French and then they whipped the Americans. And the phrase Viet Cong was a perjoritive coined in Saigon. The proper name is NLFSV, for the National Liberation Front, South Viet Nam. Worst year of my life was in the Mekong delta.

[Mike_Oettle]

Leonard wrote: “The proper name is NLFSV, for the National Liberation Front . . .”

Well, at the risk of getting overly political, I would say that this “proper” name was as misleading as the title of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or the Chinese mainland army being called the People’s Liberation Army.
Viet Cong is good enough for me.
It wasn’t a conflict my country was involved in, but we had our own problems in Southern Africa.
Regards,
Mike

[Whidbey78]

...The man had the most laughable looking pithy object on his head I've ever seen on a human being, from certain angles anyway. He looked like a three year old who had put on Daddy's hat. I missed the film's opening, or rather my DVR did, so it may well have been intended to make him look like a greenhorn but, intentionally funny or not, it was dead pathetic to see him in it. And of course, hilarious.

Kinda like Dark Helmet in Spaceballs?


Man, I gots ta get me one of them!

[BoldHighlander]

Fascinating to see the variety of shapes among those pith helmets.
I still like the style of the type of hat worn (in white) by the British during the Zulu War and (in khaki) during the South African War.

Glad your enjoying them, Mike
If I had my choice I'd pick the khaki one, at least for field use (it wouldn't show dirt as quickly ).

Here's another one for you:



A few jocks (Gordons?) at a field hospital, Paardeberg Drift.

[Downunder Kilt]

Great photo Terry, and good to see you back, again. Hope that flu thing is all over now. In the top middle of the photo there is a soldier entering the doorway with what appears to be a slouch hat (that's what I make it out to be)

Can't imagine that this makeshift hospital was the best place to be when wounded. Can understand why so many either had limbs amputated or died of gangrene.

[BoldHighlander]

Great photo Terry, and good to see you back, again. Hope that flu thing is all over now.

Thanks Mike!
You & me both! I actually had to take an enforced break from the computer. I had coughed so much that I ended up with a severe strain of my ribs & ab' muscles!

In the top middle of the photo there is a soldier entering the doorway with what appears to be a slouch hat (that's what I make it out to be)

Good catch! It might just be the angle, but does the pith helmet on the gent sitting to the right (with the rifle) look a little different than the others? (...I think its just me )

Can't imagine that this makeshift hospital was the best place to be when wounded. Can understand why so many either had limbs amputated or died of gangrene.

Makes one shudder, doesn't it?

[Downunder Kilt]

Terry I would say that you are spot on with it being a bit different. I see it as having a lower/wider dome and the brim seems a little more pronounced.

I have done that coughing trick once before, many years ago and I can empathise with how you were feeling mate.

[BoldHighlander]

Terry I would say that you are spot on with it being a bit different. I see it as having a lower/wider dome and the brim seems a little more pronounced.

That's what I'm seeing too.

I realize the others have khaki covers, which slightly changes the shape, but not sure that this is the case with this one.

I have done that coughing trick once before, many years ago and I can empathise with how you were feeling mate.

ith: