We have a few Bergans in our collection but this one seems to be the oldest, probably as far back as the 1930’s. Norwegian, Ole. F Bergan, was a bicycle manufacturer and the story goes that he decided to make a proper rucksack after carrying game down from the mountains after a hunting expedition in 1908. His rucksacks were a huge success and they were adopted by the Norwegian Army, went on early expeditions to the North and South Pole and early Everest trips. They soon became popular in the UK, so p0pular in fact that the term Bergan is still used today to describe any rucksack even if it is not a Bergan. One of Britain’s leading outdoor retailers, Blacks of Greenock, were so upset that they could not get Bergans during World War Two that they put the advert opposite in their catalogue blaming Hitler! Not sure which model this one is though it has the facility to expand and contract down each side via a lacing system. It was kindly donated by Barbara Wager from Ashbourne, Derbyshire who tells us it was her fathers who we think was A Yarker, the name on the label opposite.