Original Item: Only One Available. This is a wonderful service worn example of the classic South African “Polo” style pith helmet with signs of extensive wear, just how you like to see these helmets! The polo helmets were considered better for the bush warfare that was waged by the South African forces, and these helmets had been field tested during the Ipumba uprising of 1932. By 1935 the polo helmet was in general wear by the South African military forces.

These helmets, although similar in design to the British Wolseley helmets, but were a better alternative for the environment. These featured a narrower brim yet were similar in shape to the Indian-made helmets of the era. However, unlike the Indian patterns the polo style helmets, which were believed to be based on actual polo helmets of the era, were made of cork and later reinforced felt as opposed to the Indian sola pith, but this one is cork construction.

The helmet itself is a lovely worn and stained “veldt-green” which still presents a nice color in areas. Veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana. A certain subtropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa has been officially defined as the Bushveld by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Trees are not abundant—frost, fire and grazing animals allow grass to grow but prevent the build-up of dense foliage.

This standard WWII Polo Pattern pith helmet is in very nice, worn condition. It comes complete with a simple cloth puggaree, which is the cloth wrap that surrounds the base of the exterior of the helmet and features a lovely South African Pretoria Regiment Princess Alice’s Own Cloth Pagri Flash. The leather chinstrap and liner is no longer present.

Inside is a cloth lining similar to the outside of the helmet with a lighter khaki color towards the top. There are no markings visible except for 7’8 which we believe to be a partial size. The overall condition is nice but quite worn with the cork suffering from a crushing type damage which has caused the helmet to appear as deformed.

A lovely example of a hard to find South African pith helmet. Comes more than ready for further research and display.

The regiment was formed in Pretoria on 1 July 1913 as the 12th Infantry (Pretoria Regiment) – a unit of the Active Citizen Force – by the amalgamation of several units: the Pretoria Company of the Transvaal Scottish, the Central South African Railway Volunteers, the Northern Mounted Rifles and the Pretoria detachment of the Transvaal Cycle and Motor Corps.

During World War II, the Regiment was converted to an armored formation attached to the 11th South African Armored Brigade, South African 6th Armored Division. The unit was demobilized after the war, and in 1946 it was re-organised as a part-time force, consisting of two separate regiment-sized formations. These were re-integrated in 1954.