Sheep skin jackets

[Tony Dawe]

I'm looking to convert a 1.12th scale bust of a British Tommy to an ANZAC soldier in the trenches in winter, 1916/17 and one of the features I want to add is a sheep skin sleeveless jacket over his great coat.

I'm quite aware that many British troops wore goat skins over their uniforms, but I've seen many pics of Aussies wearing sheep skins, and I wanted to see if anyone here could confirm if this was a uniquely Australian item of clothing, or common throughout the allied forces in France in 1916/17.

I have attached a photo of the bust in its original British form, which is sculpted by the very talented Carl Reid.

If anyone can enlighten me, I'd be most grateful. Thank you.

[squirrel]

IIRC the sheepskins were issued to British forces in France from late 1914 or very early 1915. 47th Division were issued them when they arrived in France in March 1915.

Good luck with the conversion and do let us see the finished bust.

[Tony Dawe]

Hi Squirrel,

Thanks for your reply.

I've attached a pic that shows the AIF sheep skin jacket being worn in Dec 1916, which is very different from the goat skin jackets and leather jerkins I've seen worn by British and Australian troops in the same period. As far as I know, AIF troops didn't have these sheep skins at Gallipoli, so they were either shipped over from Oz, or more likely acquired in France as part of AIF issued stores.

What I'm trying to determine is if these particular types of sheepskins were used by other Allied forces, or were unique to the AIF.

Cheers

Tony

[squirrel]

Apologies Tony - can't tell my sheep from my goats - it was goat skins that were issued to British troops in late 1914 early 1915. Must learn to read things properly.

[dutchbarge]

IIRC the sheepskins were issued to British forces in France from late 1914 or very early 1915. 47th Division were issued them when they arrived in France in March 1915.

Good luck with the conversion and do let us see the finished bust.

According to Sergeant Harold Baldwin, 1st Division, C.E.F., in his book, Holding the Line,

"the goatskin coats were a gift from the then Czar of Russia and were supposed to have come from China. When we had donned our gift coats there was a perceptible murmor of comment running from the end to end of the ranks, caused by the odor from the presents of the Czar not unlike the presence of a skunk. Examination disclosed that the bloody (literally) coats were dotted in many places with the actual flesh of the deceased animals still sticking to them...."

Cheers, Bill

[Tony Dawe]

No worries Squirrel, thanks for your input.

Cheers Bill, very interesting post, but still doesn't answer my question.

[Joe Sweeney]

Tony,

What I believe these Australians are wearing is a type of fur undercoat first introduced with pattern 8476/1915 approved on 10 August 1915. Details of Pattern 8476 “Undercoat Fur without sleeves” are skectchy but appears to have been a sleeveless vest made of sheep or goat hide with fur inside. They were closed by three leather straps and tongued buckles evenly spaced across the chest and abdomen. Pattern 8477, “Undercoat Fur without sleeves, cross lined with white serge” was identical in construction except for the addition of the white serge. These undercoats were meant to supplement the greatcoats and were intended to be worn under those coats although occasionally photos can be seen of it being worn as an out garment. They would have been issue to British and Commonwealth forces. These vests were declared obsolete on 9 January 1920.

Joe Sweeney

[Tony Dawe]

Hi Joe,

Thanks mate, that seems to answer my question.

Cheers

Tony