Description
Physical description
helmet and chinstrap
Wide brimmed cork helmet covered in khaki drill cloth in relic condition with exposed cork and lacking a pagri. The underside is green. The helmet is slightly distorted in shape, having been conserved, and was originally in a crushed state. The chinstrap is only 20% in evidence and the sweatband is equally distorted.
Label
Major General Orde Charles Wingate (1903-1944) the distinguished if somewhat unconventional, leader of the 'Chindits' in the Burma campaign, habitually wore, almost as his 'trademark' an overseas pattern tropical helmet, although long since abandoned as a form of dress by virtually every other British soldier. On 24 March 1944, the USAAF B25 Mitchell bomber in which Wingate, together with his ADC, two British War Correspondents and an American Crew, was reported missing on route from Imphal to Hailakandi or Lalaghat. Aerial reconnaissance identified what was thought to be the crash site and the following day, 25 March, Captain John Barnes a staff officer of 3 Indian Division and a medical officer, Lieutenant Boyle RAMC, set out from Lalaghat by jeep to try and reach the site. En route they were joined by a Field Security officer Andrew Boyd. On reaching the crash site the three men confirmed there were no survivors and no identifiable remains. As they searched the scattered wreckage, the only really firm clues they found that Wingate had indeed perished, were a few pieces of paper which they identified as scraps of reports from ' Broadway', Wingate's HQ, and the tropical helmet. The helmet was later returned to Wingate's family.
History note
Major General Orde Charles Wingate (1903-1944) the distinguished if somewhat unconventional, leader of the 'Chindits' in the Burma campaign, habitually wore, almost as his 'trademark' an overseas pattern tropical helmet, although long since abandoned as a form of dress by virtually every other British soldier. On 24 March 1944, the USAAF B25 Mitchell bomber in which Wingate, together with his ADC, two British War Correspondents and an American Crew, was reported missing on route from Imphal to Hailakandi or Lalaghat. Aerial reconnaissance identified what was thought to be the crash site and the following day, 25 March, Captain John Barnes a staff officer of 3 Indian Division and a medical officer, Lieutenant Boyle RAMC, set out from Lalaghat by jeep to try and reach the site. En route they were joined by a Field Security officer Andrew Boyd. On reaching the crash site the three men confirmed there were no survivors and no identifiable remains. As they searched the scattered wreckage, the only really firm clues they found that Wingate had indeed perished, were a few pieces of paper which they identified as scraps of reports from ' Broadway', Wingate's HQ, and the tropical helmet. The helmet was later returned to Wingate's family.
Stamped (in gold on the sweatband
"COMFORTEASE" ROYAL LETTERS PATENT NO.228467 ADOPTED BY H.M.GOVT.