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