WW1 CANADIAN ROYAL WINNIPEG RIFLES BRODIE HELMET WITH EMBLEM

This is an original Royal Winnipeg Rifles Canadian Brodie (Tommy) helmet.  The helmet has its original oil skin liner and leather chinstrap.

Stamped faintly with number on underside of helmet, we think it is D/F43.  Has the Royal Winnipeg Rifles Little Black Devils symbol painted on the front of the helmet in red paint/ink put on by the soldier who wore it.  Nice, and scarce to find.

Has a 3/8 Liner.

Received from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles Museum, Canada. The museum was selling off some of there museum’s items, to make room for more. The museum called it deaccessioning surplus museum artifacts.

The museum numbers their items for inventory purposes and you will see that there is a very small white number on this item put there by the museum. They are very easy to remove with your fingernail.

The Brodie helmet was originally designed in London in 1915 by Latvian inventor John Leopold Brodie, and named after him. This was a modified form of the Mark 1 in Britian and the M1917 Helmet in the U.S.

Other names were the Tommy Helmet, Battle Bowler, Shrapnel Helmet along with the Dishpan Hat, Washbasin, Tin Pan Hat and Kelly Helmet.

Steel helmets became very common during World War I because of close combat, trench warfare, and destructive new weapons. 

The Royal Winnipeg Rifles (R Wpg Rif) are a Primary Reserve one-battalion infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. Nicknamed the "Little Black Devils", they are based out of the Minto Armoury in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles are part of 3rd Canadian Division's 38 Canadian Brigade Group.

In 1883, the 90th Winnipeg Battalion of Rifles was authorized by the Government, becoming the oldest infantry regiment in western Canada.

During the Northwest Canada Expedition in 1885 the Regiment faced its baptism of fire in the Battles of Fish Creek and Batoche. During the former an adversary was baffled as to who were the dark-coated men (referring to the Regiment’s dark green coats) fighting alongside the red-coated Canadian militia said “The redcoats we know, but who are those little black devils?”

The moniker stuck and the motto “HOSTI ACIE NOMINATI” (Named by the Enemy Force) and the rampant devil are emblazed on the Regiment’s cap badge. Since then, the members of the regiment proudly call themselves “Little Black Devils".

The Little Black Devils entered the maelstrom of war during the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. They trained at Camp Shilo, Manitoba. Three months later they were transferred to Debert Camp, Nova Scotia and in September 1941, 36 officers and 860 other ranks of the Little Black Devils arrived in England. Following the war, the Canadian Expeditionary Force demobilized and the Regiment was renamed the Winnipeg Rifles. In 1933, it was granted the name Royal Winnipeg Rifles.