Objects Database

Ex W.D. (War department) Karabiners(?)

Accession Number

1551.2020.1

Object Name

Ex W.D. (War department) Karabiners(?)

Created

03/08/2020

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

03/08/2020

Brief Description

Two Ex W.D. (War department) Karabiners(?) One snap link and one screw type.

Materials

Metal

Dimensions

10(L)x5(W) cms

Number Of Objects

2

Inscription Description

“BRITISH MADE” on one
“D&J” on other

Colour

Silver

Object Production Place

Britain

Provenance

We are fairly sure that these two little fellas are a couple of the legendary Ex W.D. (War Department) karabiners that appeared in the army surplus stores not long after World War Two.
We do know that the style, shape and material are classic 1940/50’s. We also know that all early karabiners were made of steel with Stubai of Austria being the main producer.
Frenchman, Pierre Allain, created the first aluminium/alloy karabiners in 1939, but it took a couple of decades before they became widely available.
1939 co- incidentally saw the outbreak of war and whatever karabiners were available in Europe became unavailable in the UK, so in characteristic fashion the military got UK engineering companies to make their own.
The British made one we have here in the collection speaks for itself and we think the other one is also of British origin. The only thing missing is the W.D. arrow which often, though not always, appeared on military gear of that era.
A lovely little bit of history whatever, and we should note here that a company called Hiatt in Birmingham, also made early karabiners and we have a couple of old ones elsewhere in the collection.

Acquisition Date

03/08/2020

Condition Check Date

03/08/2020

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

03/08/2020

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