WWII F.A.N.Y. MKI* Helmet

[JerryBB]

An early birthday present from my wife.

A rimless WWI helmet shell that was refurbed circa 1938 as the UK realised that war was on the cards and they had no steel helmets, so stocks of WWI helmets were stripped of their liners and chinstraps and were refitted with new MKI liners, MKI chinstrap lugs and in this case MKII chinstraps (MKI chinstraps were very short lived as they had a habit of coming off the shell and also MKI lugs and even the MKII lugs were superceded by C. 1940 when being replaced by MKIII lugs).

The shell is a rimless type by Hadfield Steels and the liner is by J Compton Sons & Webb who were well known cap makers though not so commonly seen by me for making steel helmet liners. The chinstrap is named to Gibson who does not appear on the memorial to the fallen for the FANY in WWII. http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/wts.htm

The single decal is placed to one side and is for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry who during WWII provided drivers and also personnel for the Polish army and the Finnish government as well as in East Africa.

They also famously provided 39 of the 50 agents dropped by SOE into occupied France during the war, of whom 13 were captured and killed, though less well known is that they also provided cypher clerks and radio operators amongst other support staff to the intelligence services.

Whilst rimless MKI* helmets are not common, I have never seen another helmet with a F.A.N.Y. decal or know of another one.

[Tigerlily]

Fantastic! what a great present. And early Happy Birthday

[NEMO]

OH MY LORD ............will your wife have an affair with me ???

that is one of the nicest bits ive seen in a long long time/......

oh and happy birth day young sir

[Frank Kelley]

Happy birthday Jerry, to actually have a wife like that, good heavens, what a dream!

[Tigerlily]

Originally Posted by NEMO

OH MY LORD ............will your wife have an affair with me ???

Michael!!
Are militaria appreciative wives that rare??


It's a really nice helmet Jerry, if ever you get bored with it, you know me and lids ...........

[Cribyn]

YES

[Cribyn]

Self deleted

[ubervamp]

Jerry

What an excellent addition! And the F.A.N.Y. decal is a very nice touch!
Congrats, mate

Colin

[Sonofacqms]

I have one which was issued to a local man during WWII with the original lining inside and the outline of a Welsh Guards cap badge on the front, I must dig it out from the stores . . !

Rob

[JerryBB]

Originally Posted by Sonofacqms

I have one which was issued to a local man during WWII with the original lining inside and the outline of a Welsh Guards cap badge on the front, I must dig it out from the stores . . !

Rob

Welsh guards, sounds great Rob, I'd like to see it if possible.

I used to have a tankers lid with a representation of the WG hackle on the side.

[JerryBB]

Many thanks to all for the comments.

[Sonofacqms]

Jerry,

I have visited my storeroom and here's the pics of the helmet, the Welsh Guards badge has been painted over, but still visible. This helmet was issued to a member of the ARP.

Rob

[JerryBB]

Originally Posted by Sonofacqms

Jerry,

I have visited my storeroom and here's the pics of the helmet, the Welsh Guards badge has been painted over, but still visible. This helmet was issued to a member of the ARP.

Rob

Very nice Rob, if ever you are willing to part with it perhaps we can do some sort of deal, money or swaps or a combo of both.

[Mike_2817]

Originally Posted by JBBOND

They also famously provided 39 of the 50 agents dropped by SOE into occupied France during the war, of whom 13 were captured and killed, though less well known is that they also provided cypher clerks and radio operators amongst other support staff to the intelligence services.

Re the S.O.E. and F.A.N.Y. ? - I think that the F.A.N.Y. was more a cap badge of convenience and a cover for female S.O.E. agents while in England, than being of the F.A.N.Y. themselves (perhaps some were) Male S.O.E. agents wore the 'General Service' cap badge.

[JerryBB]

Originally Posted by Mike_2817

Re the S.O.E. and F.A.N.Y. ? - I think that the F.A.N.Y. was more a cap badge of convenience and a cover for female S.O.E. agents while in England, than being off the F.A.N.Y. themselves (perhaps some were) Male S.O.E. agents wore the General Service Corps cap badge.

Indeed, hard to say which was which, actual FANY or SOE, though I would assume that most SOE were recruited then badged as FANY rather than recruited from FANY but that does not mean that anyone wearing FANY items were SOE or were not without further info. Members of FANY were used as chypher clerks etc at home but I don't know if they were again merely badged as FANY or recruited as FANY.

I have an OSD cap with GS badge on it and it was mentioned by the seller as a remote possibilty, almost in passing, and I have never held any faith in that being the case, it is merely an OSD cap with GS badge.