Oliver Pattern Belt

The Oliver Pattern belt is of sturdy leather, 1 5/8" wide, with a snake buckle. The leather is 8-10 ounce  ( 8-10/64th" ) and the "snake" head is more duck or goose-like than snakish. Such buckles have been used on sword belts since the 15th century.

 

The size altering system works on the left side with a loop and buckle. Two rings are sewn into the belt on either side of the snake buckle as attachment points for the shoulder braces. A hole is placed in the tongue of the belt so it can be worn loose, or so I've read. The original belts, and indeed all the Oliver gear, seem to have been of a natural, untreated colour. Old photographs show a lightness of tone against a uniform. One hundred years of sunlight, air, and oils darken the leather down. 

The photos show the What Price Glory belt with an original revealing the rivets of the 1915 conversion. The colour difference becomes apparent here too.

A reproduction belt can be purchased at the link below.

         http://onlinemilitaria.net/shopaff.asp?affid=1497

Oliver Pattern : A brief history

   The Oliver Pattern was the creation of a 19th century British army surgeon, W.S. Oliver, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He put forth a patent in 1876, and again in 1894, specifying the purpose and nature of his revised gear. His wish was to produce a system which would allow a soldier to be free from a supply base for 24 hours, carrying sufficient food, clothing, and ammunition. Key to this was the use of leather strapping which did not cross the soldier's chest but grew out of a shoulder yoke. The weight of the gear was to be variously supported by the belt and the shoulder strapping. This was to be an improvement over the cross belts of traditional army design, but to read Oliver's patent is to enter the Victorian world of extreme complexity.

 The British Army had come up with the Slade-Wallace system, but Oliver's model finally caught the eye of the Canadian Militia. It was put into effect in a revised form in time for Canadian participation in the Boer War. During this conflict the short-comings of the Oliver Pattern became apparent. The water bottle was too small and fragile, the ammunition pouch was awkward on the soldier's front, the yoke tended to dig into the shoulders or neck, and the straps, when snugly adjusted, bound under the arms and made movement difficult. In short the Oliver gear looked great on parade but did not work in war.

Subsequent alterations never fixed the Oliver Pattern. At the outbreak of WWI it was still in use and was approved of by Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia, for the sense of a distinctly Canadian appearance it gave the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), but it was rejected by the British for service at the front. It was to survive in its belt as a "walking out" belt behind the lines, and in a last reworking as the 1915 pattern.

      Canadians in England wearing the Oliver Pattern, 1914

      For more information read Tangled Web by Jack Summers

Beginnings

The Great War has always been in my blood. As a child growing up in England the war had a kind of ancient mystery about it, made strangely real by the old crippled men one would still see in the streets. In 1970 I moved to Canada. I was 11 then and heard the few tales my Canadian grandfather was prepared to tell, but this was still the domain of old men. Many years later as I scrutinized a photograph of my grandfather and his machine gun crew I suddenly saw young, excited, and hopeful eyes looking directly at me. I was captivated.

Six years ago I discovered my grandfather's ammunition pouches and set about acquiring the rest of the uniform. In the world of online images I found my models and soon set about making a serviceable, but theatrical, reproduction. I was not satisfied by my efforts, and I could not afford to collect original artifacts. Then I discovered the world of reproductions.

My principal source of parts for a Great War uniform has been What Price Glory, a California based company. In time I was completely attired. I could not stop there however. In my searches I had stumbled on the Canadian Oliver Pattern gear, a stylish but apparently ineffective design of leather webbing created in the late 19th century by a British army surgeon working in the Canadian army. Since Canadian webbing had become my focus I had to follow this to the end. Eventually I had enough details from online sources, and the book "Tangled Web", that I was able to make yet another set of passable webbing, this time in leather. My Oliver Pattern gear was no sooner created than I saw the first item, the belt, available from What Price Glory. Now I had to phone and in seconds was speaking with the owner, Jerry Lee. Apparently he was as amazed that anyone else concerned himself with this gear as I was. He was also missing critical information, and by the time I hung up the phone I had promised him I would track down original sources in Canada and send him all the measurements and directions required to produce the Oliver Pattern. This is what I have done.

Canadian leather webbing in The Great War, and Tim's Satchels

This is a new blog growing out of my research on Canadian leather webbing in WWI, and leading to my production of robust leather satchels based on these designs. I will present my findings on the Oliver Pattern gear of 1900, the alterations that became the equipment of 1915, and finally the Canadian dismounted equipment of 1916. In the process I will introduce my own leather creations, available  for sale, which have grown out of these discoveries.

           Oliver Pattern and new satchel