New Brodie Helmet

Hi Guys - I'm new to the forum.

I would be grateful if anyone can help me with the identification of my new Brodie helmet which I recently bought?

When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had a painted insignia on its side that was not shown in the auction images! The helmet has the makers stamping  of  'HS '278' (Hadfield Ltd Sheffield) on the underside of the skirt. If this is at the rear of the helmet, the insignia is on the wearer's left hand side. From its condition and patina I would say that it is definitely and original marking.

The Divisional / Regimental insignia is an oblong approximately 2 3/8 inches long by 1 1/4 inches high. The marking does not appear to belong to a British unit. From my investigations, I think this could possibly be for the 1st Canadian Division, and being a solid block of colour, could this denote it belonged to someone in Divisional HQ?

I note that the 5th Canadian division had similar insignia although this Division had a 'maroon' colour for its markings as opposed to a 'blood-red' colour. I would say that the insignia on my helmet was more of a red colour originally, that has been dulled down by age and dirt.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

'Brodie' is collector slang and is meaningless, so my first suggestion is learn the different marks and types of helmets and use those terms when discussing your purchases. I suspect what you may have is a FWW helmet, but at this point without photographs what you are talking about is anyone's guess. Remember, when you go to Canadian Tire to by an alternator for you car, the first thing the clerk behind the counter asks is , 'make and model' - so apply that when discussing militaria.