Eaglehurst Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 (edited) Couple of recent acquisitions. A pair of 1954 dated 'Trousers, Combat, Sateen, 1953 pattern'. These, I believe, represent the last variant of the orignal 1951 'Trousers, Combat' (the middle versions being the 'Trousers, Combat Sateen' [usually dated 1953] and 'Trousers, Combat Sateen, 1952 Pattern'), but still retaining the nice 'Swift' brand double zip. Also, for interest, a pair of very early dated 1960 Pattern trousers by the little known manufacturer 'Manclark & Son'. Don't recall seeing any other production runs from them with a different contract number so this may well represent their only efforts for the 1960 pattern line. Interestingly the lining has disappeared in the 1953 variant (I believe both the 1951 and 1952 variants retained linings) but is back again for the 1960 pattern issue. The inclusion of the lining really does make for a very heavy pair of trousers which must have tripled their weight when wet and taken an age to dry out! No wonder so many squaddies used the old denims, or later lightweights (if using the similarly lined 1968 pattern trousers), whenever they could. Edited February 13, 2013 by Eaglehurst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdbikemad Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 The only 50's pattern trousers that were lined Jason, were the early ones made in gabardine and lined in the same......when sateen was introduced during mid-52, the lining disappeared.......... Your Size 6 1961-dated 60 pattern strides made by "Manclark" are Air-Ministry (or very possibly Naval) issue.......according to my 1962 dated manufacturing specs for the combat suit, Smocks and Trousers destined for the Air Ministry (RAF/ROC) were to have the contract number added to the label, which yours have !..... Army issues had no contract number displayed until much later, generally after NATO stock numbers were added to the label in the late-60s....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaglehurst Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Excellent Steve - thanks for the info. That would explain why I have not seen any further examples of Manclark manufacture post 61....it would also explain the strange lettering at the beginning of the contract no.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdbikemad Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Excellent Steve - thanks for the info. That would explain why I have not seen any further examples of Manclark manufacture post 61....it would also explain the strange lettering at the beginning of the contract no.... "NX" is an odd coding Jason, and may possibly be naval, but I suspect RAF (Naval kit generally has a "Vocabulary" number or reference)............contract numbers did begin to be displayed on WD (Army) demanded kit prior to the NSN coding...(my 66 dated size 8 smock has such) but these are generally the more common "A/78" variety..........certainly early 60s, if the 1962 manufacturing spec's are accurate, contract details only appeared on RAF (Air Ministry) demanded 60 pattern clothing at the time........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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