[CharlesS]

Colin, Thanks so much for your info...very interesting, not only in that the helmet was viewed as quite modern for the time, but also the fact that many of them may have ended up in the Sudan. I really want to dig around and see if I can find a Wilkinson maker's mark or label, but am afraid to put too much pressure on the clearly fragile liner.

Here are the helmet liner pics that had been requested earlier. Our fellow forumite, Philip Tom, has been quite helpful in trying to restore and preserve the leather as much as possible. As you can see the liner resembles European styles of the era, I recognise a distinct similarity to Prussian spiked helmets, or pickelhauben, of the time.