This month’s impression takes us back to the Great War and depicts a member of the Army Service Corps who is unusually wearing a nearly full set of 1903 equipment:

In reality, few men wore so much of the set, and most wore ether the bandolier, or the belt order, but to make this impression a little more interesting I have included the full set for you. Out soldier wears the standard serge service dress worn throughout World War One. This is combined with a stiff service dress cap, puttees and B5 boots and is typical of the uniform worn by most soldiers on the Western Front- the cap badge is the economy version without the piercing cut out. He carries the standard SMLE rifle and his equipment is the 1903 pattern leather set. This comprises of the bandolier, here a five pocket example holding fifty rounds, a general service water bottle carrier which has a leather cradle for the water bottle and is slung over the body and a set of belt equipment. The belt equipment sees the mess tin in its cover being worn in the small of the back, a bayonet in its frog, two 15 round ammunition pouches and two ten round ammunition pouches. Altogether, with the bandolier, he has 100 rounds of ammunition available to him.

1. Service Dress jacket
2. Service Dress cap
3. B5 Boots
4. 19034 pattern bandolier equipment
5. Greyback shirt
6. Service Dress trousers
7. Water bottle in general service carrier
8. Puttees

This is my first Great War impression and it is still very much a work in progress, however I am pleased with how its come together and thought you would like to see how it is coming together so far.