Pith Helmets

Pith Helmets
Lifting the lid off Pith Helmets!
While researching for a fancy dress costume, I found this information about Pith Helmets. They are a typical familiar item which most people know nothing about. So here you go...
The pith helmet, also known as the sun helmet, topee, sola topee, salacot or topi, is a lightweight helmet made of cork or pith, typically from the sola – an Indian swamp growth – with a cloth cover, designed to shade the wearer's head from the sun. Pith helmets were once much worn by Westerners in the tropics.
The origins of the Pith Helmet date back to the 1840s, but it was around 1870 that the pith helmet became popular with military personnel in Europe's tropical colonies. Originally made of pith with small peaks at the front and back, the helmet was covered by white cloth, often with a cloth band or puggaree around it with small holes for ventilation. Military versions often had metal insignia on the front and could be decorated with a brass spike or ball-shaped finial. The chinstrap could be in leather or brass chain, depending on the occasion. The base material later became the more durable cork covered with cloth and frequently still referred to as pith helmets.
Colonial form of Pith Helmet is now associated strongly with the British Empire. However, the pith helmet was used by all European colonial powers. It was commonly worn by white officers commanding locally recruited soldiers in the colonial troops of Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Imperial Germany and the Netherlands, as well as civilian officials in their tropical territories. White troops serving in the tropics usually wore pith helmets.
During the Anglo-Zulu War, British troops dyed their white pith helmets with tea for camouflage. Soon khaki-coloured pith helmets became standard issue for service as well.
Pith helmets were widely worn during World War I by British Empire, Turkish, Belgian, French and German colonial troops fighting in the Middle East and Africa. The British Army formally abolished the tropical helmet in 1948.
The Royal Marines still wear white "Wolseley pattern" helmets of the same general design as the old pith helmet as part of their number 1 or dress uniform. These date from 1912 in their present form and are made of natural cork covered in white cloth on the outside and shade green on the inside. Decoration includes a brass ball ornament at the top, helmet plate and chin chain. A similar headdress is worn by the Thai and Tongan Royal Guards as well as the Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince of Monaco and by the Sri Lankan Police as part of their dress uniform. In the Philippines, some ceremonial units use sun helmets.
British diplomats in tropical postings, Governors General, Governors and colonial officials continued to wear the traditional white helmets as part of their ceremonial white uniforms until the practice died out during the 1970s and '80s. The ceremonies marking the end of British rule in Hong Kong in 1997 were probably the last occasion on which this style of headdress was seen as a symbol of Empire.
Images: Two British Pith Helmets and a Pair of French Pith Helmets.