Item ST 26515 Helmet - Steel, 5th Battalion, Australia, World War I, 1914-1918

Summary

Steel helmet, 1914 British pattern. Photographs in the trenches of World War I depict Australian soldiers wearing similar helmets. Regimental colours of black and red are painted on the side of the helmet's crown, representing the Australian 5th Infantry Battalion.

Donated with a small collection of material relating to the service of Henry Alfred Laurence Allibon (Service No. 8161). It is not known how Allibon came to have this helmet, since he did not serve in this battalion.

Allibon was a 24 year old clerk from Deniliquin, NSW at the time he enlisted in the AIF on 7 July 1915. He served with the 2nd Australian General Hospital, moving to France in April 1916. In early 1918 he started officer training and qualified for a commission in August that year. He suffered from bronchitis and sustained a non-military injury, but survived the war relatively unscathed. After returning to Australia, Allibon was the secretary of the Australian Automobile Chamber of Commerce based in Melbourne and general secretary of the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Physical Description

Steel Helmet. 1914 pattern. Regimental colours black and red on side.