Sword Sticks

[wainfleet]

I can believe that this is genuine. I very much doubt such things got into the trenches, but they might well have been carried for self defence behind the lines, eg. for use on resentful French / Belgian civilians who became truculent after a few drinks.

[IanA]

I don't think sticking pointy things into our noble allies was encouraged.

[yellow]

I dont think murdering men in your own unit was encouraged, but it still happened.

Just as with any country, there are always undesirables and one would be prudent to defend ones self against them. If you get the point.........now theres a pun.

[jellytwig]

My family possesses a riding crop with a large horn knob and 18" long concealed blade which family tradition claims my grandfather brought back from France after the Armistice. It is reputed to have been obtained from a German uhlan officer. I can imagine many gentlemen and huntsmen of the era would own such an item and take it with them on campaign amongst their personal possessions as a dual purpose tool rather than with any concern for concealment of a blade.

[nigelfe]

I'd be extremely surprised if sword sticks were official issue (in fact I'd be utterly gobsmacked). I think you'll find that not even officer's swords were 'official issue' although they were to approved regimental (?) patterns. Officers purchased their own accoutrements and uniforms. Actually issuing Brit army officers with uniforms is a relatively modern phenomina (and even today they purchase quite a lot, of course they also get an allowance).

That said I'd said that there is no doubt in my mind that some officers thought they might be useful and acquired them. Whether soldiers did so is another matter, cost would be a factor. The cited examples with regimental badges might have been presentation items, or specially made by an enterprising artisan for those who could afford them. This might mean they were 'regimantal issue, which is not the same thing as 'official issue'.

Just 'to make the point, its worth noting that when the London Scottish mobilsed in 1914 their Vickers were a more modern version than the 'official issue', they'd purchased them using regimental funds.

I've noticed on this list that there's an assumption that everything used by the Brit Army was 'official issue', this is total cobblers and not a good working assumption.

[mcderms]

I remember attending a Militaria show as a lad some 20 years ago... one seller had bundles of sword sticks, all shapes and sizes which he'd bought as a collection and was now selling off. This included lots of WW1 sticks complete with crests and badges. I recall that they were all private purchase items, given to officers in much the same way that concerned families purchased body armour and steel backed bibles, when swords ceased to be carried.

The longer ones looked bl00dy useless to be frank: thin flat blades that looked like they were for show only and I suspect would snap if you tried to shove it through the average Prussian. However some of the more 'swagger stick' sized versions looked lethal - hard, short pig stickers like the No. 4 Enfield bayonet of WW11.

I very much doubt if any of the former made it to the Front and that if they did, the primary uses would be that of the SMLE bayonet - general cooking utensil, especially for toast. The shorter, ugly little brutes however looked like a weapon au choix for the discering trench raider... ??