19mac79 Posted 19 May , 2016 Share Posted 19 May , 2016 I have recently purchased an example of the US produced convalescent jacket for great Britain. Ie the same as the British produced blue jacket but in grey. Does anyone have any information on these jackets? Did the US produced the trousers in grey as well for Britain? Was there a particular type of white shirt worn with these to take the red tie orWeWe're they simply civil shirts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 20 May , 2016 Share Posted 20 May , 2016 I saw the same sort of item advertised recently on eBay.com (US) I did not bid on it because I could find no independent support that it was what it was described as. Do you have any independent support for the idea that the US produced "hospital blues" (or greys!) I could not find any. It was an interesting item with, as I recall a clear WD stam,p but my recollection is that is was not quite the same as the standard UK produced "blue" versions (although admittedly there seem to be several versions of these too) There are plenty of examples of UK made US Uniforms but I have not (yet) found evidence of US made UK uniforms in WWI (equipment - ie Pattern 14, weapons etc yes but not uniforms) I am very interested to see what folks come up with here. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19mac79 Posted 20 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2016 Hi Chris Yes the US produced quite a few items for Britain ranging from as you rightly say the 14ptn leather equipment to the economy SD tunic, trousers, great coat etc etc. Canada also produced the economy SD uniform for Britain as well. I am lucky enough to have an example of a US produced economy SD tunic. There are lots of photos available of convalesing British soldiers wearing a mixture of the British produced blue uniform mixed with the US produced grey uniform. Your right, it is a different cut in the fact that the collar can be closed as well as open unlike the the British made blue jacket which is just open. There are also two different patterns of blue jacket used in ww1 but only really differ in the lining/facing of collar. When I work out how to add photos I'll upload some pictures of the US made uniforms being worn by brits in hospitals. Cheers Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 20 May , 2016 Share Posted 20 May , 2016 I'd be very interested to see those Andy, I have quite a few pictures showing soldiers in hospital blues but had not noticed / been able to identify "grey" ones. To upload a photograph it needs to be smaller than 250kb and dimensionally smaller than 1200x1600 pixels the easiest way to achieve this is to reduce the DPI to 100 (for on screen viewing it makes virtually no difference - printing is another matter of course) So here is an example of a reasonably sized photo: (the file is 82kb) Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19mac79 Posted 20 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2016 Hi Chris That's a lovelly pic. Yes I'm trying to get my head and poor computer skills around the uploading of pictures issue haha. If you can get hold of a copy of Chris pollendines campaign 1915 there's a section on US produced economy uniforms for Britain. I've found some lovely pictures of hospitals in the UK showing mixed blue and grey convalescent uniforms being worn. When you look closely you can see the slight differences in pattern but can clearly see the difference in colour. When I get home from work I'll attempt to alter the size of the pictures. Fingers crossed lol. Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 20 May , 2016 Share Posted 20 May , 2016 Does anyone know if there existed convalescent summer weight & winter weight uniforms or was there only one uniform ? khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19mac79 Posted 20 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2016 Hopefully attached is a pic of a British Hospital in 1916 (Great Dixter, East Sussex) showing British soldiers wearing both the British manufactured 'Hospital Blues' (showing as a darker shade) on the left and soldiers wearing the US manufactured 'hospital greys' (a much lighter shade) on the right. Fingers crossed this has worked. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19mac79 Posted 20 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2016 Hurray..... its worked. My first pic upload. My goodness that was a faf haha. Well I have loads of pictures like this showing the two majorly contrasting tones of the two types of convalescent uniforms. There appears to be three different types of 'grey' tunic, with lower patch pockets, without pockets and with one large breast pocket on the right. They're the types I have managed to identify so far. Andy PS also forgot to mention that the other difference is that one type is cut in an open collar whilst the other two types are closed collar (but often worn open). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovetown Posted 21 May , 2016 Share Posted 21 May , 2016 Was there a particular type of white shirt worn with these to take the red tie or were they simply civil shirts? There were three patterns of shirt for hospital use: Flannel White Ordinary - Hospital; Flannel White Tropical - Hospital and Flannel White Tropical - Helpless Patients. These were the only white shirts on the inventory (apart from one for laboratory wear) and distinct in that colour for hospital use. Information from the late Joe Sweeney. There are plenty of examples of UK made US Uniforms but I have not (yet) found evidence of US made UK uniforms in WWI (equipment - ie Pattern 14, weapons etc yes but not uniforms) I am very interested to see what folks come up with here. As Andy says, the US made Simplified service dress uniforms for the UK - 1,300,000 to be precise. The US-made Simplifieds illustrated in Campaign 1915 on p.10-11 and p.14-15 respectively are both ex- my collection. Cheers, GT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19mac79 Posted 21 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 21 May , 2016 Hi GT Thank you for the info on the shirts. That is exactly why I joined this site, to learn. Wonderful! Now then.... here begins the prcoess of trying to find an example of one of these shirts of which Im sure it is going to be pretty impossible haha. Thanks again Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 21 May , 2016 Share Posted 21 May , 2016 As Andy says, the US made Simplified service dress uniforms for the UK - 1,300,000 to be precise.The US-made Simplifieds illustrated in Campaign 1915 on p.10-11 and p.14-15 respectively are both ex- my collection. Cheers, GT. Thanks for this. I shall have to seek out this work. How are these simplified jackets identifiable, do they differ in construction or contain different maker's labels/stamping or....? Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovetown Posted 21 May , 2016 Share Posted 21 May , 2016 Thanks for this. I shall have to seek out this work. How are these simplified jackets identifiable, do they differ in construction or contain different maker's labels/stamping or....? Chris This'll help: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=141417&hl=simplified Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 21 May , 2016 Share Posted 21 May , 2016 Thanks. It appears (as I participated) I had forgotten! Cheers Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Upton Posted 22 May , 2016 Share Posted 22 May , 2016 Your right, it is a different cut in the fact that the collar can be closed as well as open unlike the the British made blue jacket which is just open. This is incorrect - the original style Hospital Blue uniform in British use at the start of the war could be closed to the collar. Though the style of wearing the tunic had changed so that the top button or two was left open with the lapels folded back to expose the white shirt and red tie beneath the jackets had continued to be made with buttons and buttonholes to close them to the collar if necessary for some time. Later on in the war jackets that were made purely to be worn with the lapels back (ie no extra buttons or buttonholes) came into existence. Pictures of soldiers wearing British made jackets with the extra buttonholes visible on the wearers left lapel are not uncommon. A good example of an original British jacket at the IWM actually pictured closed to the collar can also be seen below: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30100153 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19mac79 Posted 23 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 23 May , 2016 Hi Andrew Yes your right. Well spotted! Cheers Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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