Menacing Headdress

When 2nd Suffolk were stationed in Ireland in 1914, their primary working dress was khaki. 
However as a Home Service Battalion, their headdress would have included the distinctive blue cloth spiked helmet. 
Normally, it would have been worn with the scarlet frock and dark blue trousers on 'high days and holidays' but it was also to be worn as part of the khaki working dress if the situation arose. 
In the troubled days following the affair at the Curragh, it is highly probably that Lieut-Col. Brett, may have ordered its wearing, especially should they have been asked to proceed against Ulster - if for no other reason that to look a bit more menacing! 
Seen above two years before, Private Middleton is on guard at Brinkinault Colliery, Chirk, wearing the imposing spiked Home Service helmet. Perhaps it's appearance did the trick. The strike resided and the men returned to work an few days after 2nd Suffolk arrived. Ludicrous and impracticable you might say, but the enemy that they were soon to face also wore spiked hats!

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