Ive got a nice one!

A

adrianw

New member
OK, its nothing fancy, just a regular soldiers helmet. It has been in my family since it was taken as a "trophy" from the battlefield by my great grandfather. I am curios to try to find out a liitle bit more about it.

It is all original with nothing missing as far as I can tell and also has a fully intact trench/field cover. It has the number 111 on the cover and inside has printed JR149 3B 1902. I guess it is the 3rd battalion, could JR149 be a service number? 1902 I guess would be the date it was issued?

If anyone can give me any clues it would be much appreciated.
 
Adrian welcome to the forum! Sounds like a well-done combo. However the cover and the helmet are probably not from the same origin. You are right on about the third Battalion.

JR149 means infantry Regiment, 149, which was a West Prussia outfit
6. Westpreußisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr.149 Schneidemühl, III Dt. Krone -- -- it was in II army Corps.

The plate on the front of the helmet would look like this.
Wappen_28.gif
.

The 111 on the helmet cover represents infantry Regiment, 111 from XIV army Corps. It was an outfit from Baden. The helmet wappen on the front of the helmet would look like this.
Wappen_05.gif
.

You might find some more it useful information about the marks at.
http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/DepotMarks.htm.

Hope this helps a little welcome again!
 
Thanks for the info. Amazing knowledge at your fingertips! Any tips on how I should look after it, its been in the back of a cupboard for the best part of 90 years. Do you know any restorers in England?
 
Hi, and welcome Adrian, from the West of England to the East. Nice to see another UK member here. Mind you, they're a great bunch of guys here so don't be afraid to ask for help.

Is there any chance that you have any pictures of the helmet? As for looking after it, I recommend following Tony's advice on his site.

http://www.kaisersbunker.com/preservation/index.htm
 
Hi Adrian,
Any tips on how I should look after it
Click to expand...
The best way is for you to send it to me, I will look after it very well, but Mike is right, take some time to go through Tony's site, and look at Brian's too at
http://pickelhaubes.com/helmetconservation.php
both these site are great and have most information one needs to start, then come back and ask more questions, but be careful, thewe thing are infectious.
Best wihses
PS watch out for Otto, he has a truck and visits collections at night, he is also delusional, he believes in aliens and drinks window cleaner.
 
Gustaf said:
Hi Adrian,
PS watch out for Otto, he has a truck and visits collections at night, he is also delusional, he believes in aliens and drinks window cleaner.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Hi Gsu,
Or you are being completely nuts,or you are wanting to sow the confusion, to remove the people's eyes from you, or you are drinking a lot of your potato elixir. In one hour the truck is mine, in another it is yours...
Poor Maggie, poor dog... :cry: !
Otto
 
Sorry Otto, I have not been taking my medication.
It is nice to see that Brian has translated his web site from Latin, that hwlps my poor weak brain cells.
Ghus
 
Hey Adrian,
I just thought I would point out that is is great to see someone who has a trophy helmet that their Great grandfather brought home, now days, most people are in a hurry to post such things on ebay and party up the money. You probably have one of the few family trophies left in the world, treasure it and your Greatgrandfather's memory. The next step in the puzzle is to trace his service history to keep with it.
Best wishes
Gus
 
Hi Adrian:
Welcome. That is a great helmet. Having the cover is very excellent as they say!! To look after this, you need to put it on some form of a head form. Styrofoam is the cheapest but I would put some cotton cloth over the form so that the foam does not touch the helmet. There are also wooden antique ones that work well. So keep the weight of the helmet off of the visors. Next keep it out of direct sun light and away from heat. Extreme conditions in humidity or dryness is not good either.
You might also want to clean the inside with a damp cloth dipped in water with a little dish soap added. Whipe out the inside of the shell by pulling the liner gently out so that the fingers point up out of the shell. The liner itself can be moisturized with a leather treatment called Lexol. Do not use Neats Foot Oil.
Whipe off the outside to remove dust and then apply several coats of black shoe polish. Let me klnow if you want to clean the fittings and I or someone else here will tell you how. When handling your helmet, never grasp it by the visors always put your hand up into the shell. The visor stitching has been subjected to a great deal of weight and abuse over the years so you have to be careful with it. Brian
 
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