British Helmet Decals

[sabertasche]

Hi all, just picked up a collection of British decals, which I assume are for helmets. There are 80 different decals, all with the same maker GALE & POLDEN Ltd. Printers and Publishers Wellington Works, Aldershot. Some just say G & P Soak Transfer in Tepid Water for About a Minute and Slide from Paper

How common was the practice of putting regimental decals on helmets in the UK? I know it was common for Canadian units to have such insignia. I will scan several and post them tomorrow.

Cheers,

Greg

[leigh kitchen]

Very common for civilian organisations such as Civil Defence, ARP etc, less common for regular army units.

The only decals I've got a two or three white "FG"s stuck together (Fire Guard?.

Are you flogging off your duplicates?

If there are more batches of these that are going to strart appearing out of storage somewhere then the down side could be that we should soon see a stunning array of jazzed up helmets on the market.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Greg, I would really like to see what you have found. Any chance of some pics please?

Cheers, Ade.

[leigh kitchen]

I've been thinking WWII decals - AFS, Hunts HG etc - but of course they may be more modern, eg units like the Royal Anglians were wearing a deacl of their cap badge in N. Ireland in the early 70's.

[DJT]

Thats interesting, Gale & Polden did some very nice manuals during the war. Never knew they did decals also. You learn something new everyday

[leigh kitchen]

I don't think it was too long ago that they stopped printing for the military, if in fact they have.

[SMP]

Military formation decals were very common pre-war. Civilian decals were very common after the war ( Police, Civil-defence, Fire-brigades etc.. ). Most war-time badges were painted.


Regards,
Steve

[sabertasche]

List of Helmet Decals

Hi All, here is a list of the decals I picked up. Excuse the crappy formatting - I haven't figured put how to do that yet. I scanned about 30 of the decals but the file was slightly too big and they wouldn't load. I'll play with this shortly as see if I can make this work.

Here is the list.

Name Description
199 Field Battery Black Pear on a Green Disk, edged in Black
138 Infantry Brigade blue Pennant w green 87
The East Surrey Regt Maroon, Buff line Black rectangle
Motor Boat Coy RASC Blue Fish edged in Yellow
Kings Shropshire Light Infantry Stringed bugle w KSLI in green rectangle
West Yorkshire
Northamptonshire Yeomanry
The Duke of Wellington Regiment Cap badge in silver on scarlet
Unknown Black, Yellow, White square
The Suffolk Regt Castle on red and black diamond
Essex Regt Cap badge on red and black diamond
Unknown R anchor A on red and black diamond
Lancashire Fusiliers Cap badge on red and black diamond
Bayshire Yeomanry Winged lion on red/black diamond
120 Field Regt Chained bear and tree stump in red/black diamond
The Q.O. Oxfordshire Yeomanry Vict. Crown over AR
20 Commando Brigade Red oval w blue pennant+yellow flag staff
Unknown Crossed sword over approaching ship in blue and orange
Canadian Provost Corps Cap badge in gold
The Loyal North Lancashire Rgt Cap badge in silver
The Middlesex Regt Cap badge in silver
Unknown dk blue, gold, black square
Unknown dk blue, yellow, dk blue square
22nd dragoons circle, green, narrow yellow stripe, black
Royal Sussex Regt cap badge
Royal Welch fusiliers Winged Griffin R.W.F (gothic) underneath
Kings Liverpool Regt cap badge in silver
London Irish cadge in silver
Irish Fusiliers cap badge
4th County of London Yeomanry cap badge
Unknown blue/yellow long pennant
Somerset Light Infantry Cap badge
Lincoln Regt Black circle w red X
Royal Scots Fusiliers Cap badge
Royal Highlanders Red Hackle
Lothian & Border Horse Wheat sheaf on sky blue diamond
Chaplain? Black diamond w purple cross
Kings own Royal Regt gold lion rampant on blue rectangle
Derbyshire Yeomanry(Dragoons) black Rectangle w 2 red lines
17th Lt. A.A. Regt., R. Artillery gold gun on blue pennant
Army Physical Training Staff black square w 2 sets of 2 red lines
Manchester Regt green square with gold fleur-de-Lys
The Green Howards Cap badge in silver
The Royal Malta Artillery
Unknown Union Jack on blue flag with crossed swords
Princess Louise Kensington Regt badge on red disk
Herefordshire Light Infantry Lion holding a dagger

[sabertasche]

Decal list - Rest of list

Worcestershire Regt badge in silver
Royal Horse Artillery badge in silver
Suffolk Regimentt badge in silver
The Buffs (E Kent Regt) Badge
The Royal Norfolk Regt badge
Royal Berkshire Regt Badge - spare
Essex Regt Cap badge in gold
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
The Hampshire Regt
North Staffordshire Regt
Devonshire Regt
East Surrey Regt
South Wales Borderers
Sherwood Foresters
Unknown Eagle holding lances with flags Hyderabad and Afghanistan
6th Regt Royal Artillery Phoenix + RESURGENS
Unknown Green diamond w 2 red lines
The Lovat Scouts checkerboard rectangle
Worcestershire Regt in silver large size
Unknown Nec Apsera Terrent

Many of these have light pencil writing on the back identifying what they are. Many have no writing on them and I could not find in my limited books what they are, I've labled them "unknown" and given a biref distcription. Many also look like the outline of a badge, the details hidden under the decal.

Cheers,

Greg

[ROBB]

Just think ...buy an ordinary Tommy helmet of ebay for £10 attach decal of your choice put it back on ebay and kerchinggggg £70 rising .Rob.

[sabertasche]

Scans

Hoi Rob, I would hope that this would not happen but the reality is it probably has already happened. As I'm a Canuck and don't collect British helmets or insignia, I really don't know much about this stuff. How rare are these? Should I be telling my wife to pack for a holiday in Mexico?

Here are some low res scans. If someone would like a more detailed scan of a badge just let me know.

Greg

[sabertasche]

More scans

Any idea what the circular boat with the crossed sword is?

[ROBB]

I think the best way to sell them is to put each one on ebay describing each regt or division together with a photo of a declled helmet so potential purchasers could see what the decal is for with a start price of £4.99 .I know I would bid on a couple .I am sure they would sell well perhaps do a batch of 15 at a time .Rob.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Greg, these are great! They do have some age to them too as many of the Regt's listed no longer exsist or have been amalgamated long ago.


I think I would be interested in the odd or two as well

Cheers, Ade.

[leigh kitchen]

To me they'd be nice colourful little additions to a collection of cap badges - a batch of those RA decals with some of the metal insignia for example.

Personally I'd want more than a couple of different ones to go with the cap badges one of each is more like it.

When a few scrotes get their hands on these on the market there'll be more helmets with decals than without, which is going to be a bugger.