Arctic windproof smock.

[boots dms]

Just acquired another windproof arctic smock,this is identical to another I have even down to the ykk zipper etc,my other one is labelled to cookson and clegg,this one however is cwcw ltd,which I allways understood to be silvermans made kit.But this one has a uk contract number beneath the name cwcw,I think starting with an s but sadly faded.My question is ,was there a cwcw ltd who were contracted to the m.o.d.,as it seems odd a silvermans one would have a contract number.

[Le Prof]

Hi,

I can't directly answer the question, but issue CWC watches of that period were supplied to the MOD by Silvermans, so they certainly had contacts with MOD procurement; I suppose that is not so strange when you consider they must have been buying surplus from MOD for many years, and so would be a well known firm.

Incidentally, I've just handed in my last pair of 20 year old Boots DMS (wrong colour, brown is now the way to go) to stores in exchange for a pair of Desert High Liability, whatever that means...

Best Regards,

Prof

[boots dms]

Hi Prof,

Thanks for the info,re Silvermans.I have a pair of the old 1970,s dms the type worn with putties and a pair of the later 80,s boots combat high,old and dated but still going strong, bit like me .lol.

Regards Steve.

[Chris Hall]

17 hours ago, Le Prof said:

Hi,

I can't directly answer the question, but issue CWC watches of that period were supplied to the MOD by Silvermans, so they certainly had contacts with MOD procurement; I suppose that is not so strange when you consider they must have been buying surplus from MOD for many years, and so would be a well known firm.

Incidentally, I've just handed in my last pair of 20 year old Boots DMS (wrong colour, brown is now the way to go) to stores in exchange for a pair of Desert High Liability, whatever that means...

Best Regards,

Prof

I took my last pair in about 2 months back expecting a pair of browns and got yet another pair of DMS. They told me they had to Exhaust the current supply.

[Edward53]

CWCW is indeed Silvermans and the number under CWCW isn't a contract number but washing instructions spec SC/UK/3698, which used to appear on cotton garments of the 70s to 90s. I'm not aware of Silvermans ever having a UK MOD contract (CWC is Cabot Watch Company), but like SASS and Arktis they certainly produced lookalike windproofs which were bought by individual soldiers out of their own pocket. Difficult to date the above smock but my guess would be early 90s.

[REME 245]

Silvermans aquired CWC in 1996 so indirectly would have supplied the MOD.

The same company which supplies the MOD with clothing seems to now also to supply the surplus market with new items so even harder to tell if it is ex-mod.   I thought the MOD had a patent on the British MTP pattern to stop this.

 

 

[Edward53]

It's not usually difficult to tell private purchase from issue items. If it has no contract number it's not ex-MoD. Very, very occasionally clothing turns up with a spurious contract number but too infrequently to have much impact. Ditto spurious NSNs, though even a real one of those doesn't make a garment ex-M0D.

[boots dms]

Thanks to all for input on this.I must say if it was,nt for the label I would never know this was a private purchase,its a damn good copy and identical to my issue Compton and webb one in every way.

[wdbikemad]

Silverman's have never had MoD contracts to manufacture clothing or equipment, despite claiming to be Contractors to HM Government..........the latter refers to their purchase of surplus from the MoD and the WD before that................

CWCW is a name used on products specifically produced for sale by the company.............they regularly used to have various garments made-up by established MoD clothing manufacturers and contractors identical to issue gear other than the labels........after all, they had the buying power and capacity to do this..........

I used to know the family fairly well since the 1970's although have since lost touch other than the odd hello every now and then...........