The pith helmet (also known as the safari helmet, sun helmet, topee, sola topee, salacot or topi[1]) is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith (typically pith from the sola, Aeschynomene aspera, an Indian swamp plant, or A. paludosa, or a similar plant).[2] Designed to shade the wearer's head and face from the sun, pith helmets were once often worn by white people in the tropics, but have also been used in other contexts.
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Crude forms of pith helmets had existed as early as the 1840s, but it was around 1870 that the pith helmet became popular with military personnel in Europe's tropical colonies. The Franco-Prussian War had popularized the German Pickelhaube, which may have influenced the distinctive design of the pith helmet. Such developments may have merged with a traditional design from the Philippines, the salakot. The alternative name salacot (also written salakhoff) appears frequently in Spanish and French sources; it comes from the Tagalog word salacsac (or Salaksak). During the Revolution in the Philippine-American War, Emilio Aguinaldo and the Philippine revolutionary military used to wear the pith helmet borrowed from the Spaniards alongside the straw hat and the native salakot.
Originally made of pith with small peaks (bills) at the front and back, the helmet was covered by white cloth, often with a cloth band (or puggaree) around it, and small holes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, although still covered with cloth and frequently still referred to as "pith" helmet.
The earliest appearance of sun helmets made of pith occurred in India during the Sikh Wars of the 1840s. Adopted more widely during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-59 they were generally worn by British troops serving in the Ashanti War of 1873, the Zulu War of 1878-79 and subsequent campaigns in India, Burma, Egypt and South Africa.[3] It was also worn by the North-West Mounted Police in policing North-West Canada, 1873 through 1874 to the North-West Rebellion and even before the Stetson in the Yukon Gold Rush of 1898.
While this form of headgear is particularly associated with both the British and the French empires, all European colonial powers used versions of it during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The French tropical helmet was first authorised for white colonial troops in 1878.[4]. The United States Army adopted it during the 1880s for use by soldiers serving in the intensely sunny climate of the Southwest United States.[5]
European officers commanding locally recruited indigenous troops, as well as civilian officials in African and Asian colonial territories used the pith helmet. White troops serving in the tropics usually wore pith helmets; although on active service they sometimes used such alternatives as the wide-brimmed slouch hats, which were worn by US troops in the Philippines and by British Empire forces in the later stages of the Boer War.
Black pith helmets were also part of the uniform of the Victoria Police during the late 19th century, including the officers involved in the shootout with legendary bush ranger Ned Kelly at Glenrowan.
At the same time, the military adopted a broadly similar helmet, of dark blue cloth over cork and incorporating a bronze spike, for military wear in non-tropical areas. This helmet led to the retirement of the Shako hat. It was rarely considered a "pith helmet". Modelled on the German Pickelhaube, the British Army adopted this headgear (which they called the "Home Service Helmet") in 1878. The US adopted it in 1881. Most British line infantry, artillery (with ball rather than spike) and engineers wore the helmet until 1902, when khaki Service Dress was introduced. With the general adoption of khaki for field dress in 1903, the helmet became purely a full dress item, being worn as such until 1914.[6] US mounted troops wore elaborate blue cloth helmets until 1901, which were decorated with plumes and cords in the colours (yellow or red) of their branches of service.
The Home Service Helmet is still worn by some British Army bands or Corps of Drums on ceremonial occasions today. It is closely related to the custodian helmet worn by a number of police forces in England and Wales.
During the Anglo-Zulu War, British troops dyed their white pith helmets with tea, mud or other makeshift means of camouflage.[7] Subsequently khaki-coloured pith helmets became standard issue for active tropical service.
Pith helmets were widely worn during World War I by British, Turkish, Belgian, French and German colonial troops fighting in the Middle East and Africa.
Helmets of this style (but without true pith construction) were used as late as World War II by Japanese, European and American military personnel in hot climates. Included in this category are the sun helmets worn in North Africa by Italian troops,[1] South African Army and Air Force units and Germany's Afrika Korps, as well as similar helmets used to a more limited extent by U.S. and Japanese[8] forces in the Pacific Theater.
The entire military of the America's colony the Philippines, which consisted of an army and a gendarmerie, used sun helmets. The U.S. Marine Corps first issued pith helmets called "elephant hats" to the 1st Marine Division's deployment to Guantánamo Bay in 1940. They were worn in the South Pacific as well as worn by recruits in United States Marine Corps Boot Camp. The Axis Second Philippine Republic's military, known as the Bureau of Constabulary, as well as other guerrilla groups in the Philippines was another user of sun helmets. The British Army formally abolished the tropical helmet in 1948.
The Ethiopian Imperial Guard retained pith helmets as a distinctive part of their uniform until the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1974. Imperial Guard units serving in the Korean War often wore these helmets when not in actual combat.
Such was the popularity of the pith helmet that it became a common civilian headgear for Westerners in the tropics & sub-tropics from the mid-19th century. The civilian pith helmet usually had the same dimensions and outline as its contemporary military counterpart though it lacked decorative extras such as badges. It was worn by men and women, old and young, both on formal and casual occasions, until the 1940s.[9] Both, white and khaki versions were used. It was often worn together with civilian versions of khaki drill and/or bush jackets.
Until the 1950s there was a widespread assumption that wearing this form of head-dress was necessary for people of European origin to avoid sunstroke in the tropics. By contrast, indigenous peoples were assumed to have acquired a relative immunity.[10] Modern medical opinion holds that some form of wide brimmed but light headwear (such as a Panama hat etc.) is highly advisable in strong sunlight for people of all races to avoid skin cancers and overheating.
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 Tongan Royal Guard 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, as do the Royal Guards of the Royal Thai Army. 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.
After World War II, the Viet Minh of Vietnam based their helmet design on the French pith helmet of the former colonial power and adopted it as their own. Today it is still widely worn by civilians in Vietnam (mostly in the North, but its use has seen sharp decline since 2007 when the motorbike helmet became mandatory for motorbike riders) but appears only rarely as part of the military uniform. In design, the Vietnamese model was similar to the pre–World War II civilian type, but covered in jungle green cloth, sometimes with a metal insignia at the front.
White (in some places light blue) sun helmets of plastic material but traditional design are still worn today by some mail carriers of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), when delivering the mail on foot in hot climates such as South Carolina, Florida, Southern California, Arizona, and Hawaii.
White colored helmets with black ribbons (virtually identical to the one pictured above, belonging to Harry Truman) were the standard duty headgear used by highway traffic officers in the Dominican Republic's National Police up until the beginning of the 21st century, when these units were replaced by the creation of the Autoridad Metropolitana de Transporte (AMET) corps, who use dark green Stetson hats instead.
The U.S. Marine Corps pith helmet has also seen use as a form of identification by rifle range coaches, similarly the campaign hat is worn by rifle range instructors as well as drill instructors.[11]
The pith helmet continues to be worn by cadets in senior positions at the Royal Military College of Canada for certain parades and special occasions. Notably, the Cadet Wing Commander, Deputy Wing Commander, Wing Training Officer, Wing Administration Officer, Squadron Leaders, Squadron Training Officers, and the Colour Party. The same pattern of helmet forms part of the ceremonial dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Regiment and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, with distinctively coloured (red and French grey respectively) puggarees.
A pith helmet with a feather plume is part of the uniform of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, from Rockford, Illinois.
A khaki or white pith helmet is part of the standard summer uniform of certain police departments in India and in Vietnam.
The pith helmet has had a limited comeback in recent years, with their now novel appearance and genuine functionalility making the headdress increasingly popular for gardening, hiking, safari and other outdoor activities. Today's helmets are generally available in four basic types (see below). These have changed little since the early 1900`s, except that for easier adjustment the inner headband utilises velcro instead of the earlier brass pins.
(i) French pith helmet. This is the most functional of the helmets, with its wide brim providing more sun protection than the more narrow-brimmed variations. This helmet is mostly made in Vietnam, where the design was inherited from French colonial patterns. Like other civilian pith helmets it can be soaked in water to keep the wearer's head cool in hot weather. Another feature in common with other patterns is the adjustable chinstrap at the front of the helmet.
(ii) Indian pith helmet. The Indian model is almost exactly the same as the French one, but with a slightly narrower brim and a squarer dome. It shares with other helmets the ventilation "button" atop the dome.
(iii) African pith helmet,or safari helmet, is a variation mainly used in savanna or jungle regions of Africa. It is generally a khaki-grey colour, with the same dimensions and shape as the Indian helmet described above.
(iv) Wolseley pith helmet. This variation of the helmet was named after (but not designed by) Sir Garnet Wolseley[12] and widely used by the British Army from 1900. It differs from other pith helmets in having a more sloping brim with an apex at the front and back. The dome is also taller and more conical than the other more rounded variations. It is the helmet often portrayed as being worn by stereotypical "Gentleman Explorers".