by Seaforth Highlander on Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:25 pm
Battalion Colours wrote:
The helmet with the Seaforth decal (transfer) on it is great and rare. I suspect it is Imperial Seaforths though. I do have two original NOS Gale & Polden decals / transfers for the Seaforths (ex-Pat Smith > Jack Gentle collection) One has the L and coronet, so is officer pattern. Other one is OR like the one shown. That one is 2-1/4" wide. These were bought in Aldershot in WWII by Pat Smith. He also bought vehicle formation sign decals/transfers which I bought from him and still have.
In 1972 I started and ran the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Museum and Archives while serving as a junior officer with the regiment. I was Curator for 15 years (three separate "tours") and finally retired from it July 2011 after it had attained Canadfian Forces Museum status. I never saw this decal connected with the Canadian Seaforths. I found two early WWII helmets both named to Seaforth of C COs (Leslie and Stevenson as I recall) - one with painted stag's head and other with decal. One I found in QM stores - we were still using WWII helmets then. So I got an ordinary helmet and traded it for the marked one from the QM for the museum. By the 1970s the Seaforth Association reproduced the wartime helmet decal as a souvenir for members and it is the OR's badge on a tartan patch. I have one on the windshield of my 1944 Willys MB jeep and an unused one in my decals collection.
A member of this forum has the bulk of the Pat Smith > Colin Stevens > Jack Gentle helmet decals.
Colin Stevens