Another unidentified piece of equipment?

[Doug504]

An image posted on Twitter this evening, Lt. Col. Scott who commanded a Battalion of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders from May 1917 to February 1919. Anyone identify the item hanging on top of the map case?

[MikB]

Maybe a hunting horn with a single valve to change note? 

I'm a bit suspicious of the photo quality.

[Doug504]

Along those lines was my first thought. Genuine image, I.W.M HU 93514, which you can view here together with studio details etc.

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205023865

 

I think we get so used to rather fuzzy images of this period that a really well taken shot can look “to good” to our eyes.

 

Doug.

[wainfleet]

Definitely a hunting horn, and a Lifeguard periscope case above his haversack. These must have been very popular as so many have survived, but it's rare to find pictures of them carried on a belt.

[2ndCMR]

The ridiculous jodhpurs which must have caused the death of thousands of officers; as one German sniper reportedly said: "we tell your officers [when attacking] by their thin legs". 

[daggers]

Not jodhpurs but breeches.  See many other references.

[303man]

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30083376 Kholer Signal Horn Mouthpiece in the initial picture looks like the left hand varient.

 

Edited 25 June , 2019 by 303man

[MikB]

I've seen a few contemporary newspaper illustrations of WW1 battle scenes showing horns, presumably made originally to identify the user's position whilst hunting and sometimes of individualistic-looking design, in use by soldiers. I'm guessing that they'd produce a distinctive sound that might allow an officer to close his men up on himself, providing he could make it heard at all in the conditions... >:-o