Homo Sapiens have been carrying things on their backs ever since they learned to stand upright and to facilitate this a vast array of devices have been contrived. The rucksack as we know it today is a fairly recent innovation, a natural process of evolution. Prior to this evolutionary phase, frames of various types were used, mostly constructed from wood, animal hide and various other natural materials – most of us will have a vision of women the world over, carrying their offspring in some form of what the North American Natives call a ‘papoose’ Compared to the fabulous array of historical carrying frames that can be viewed on the internet, the military packframe we have here in the collection looks rather bland, though it certainly looks functional and robust,. It is also very light. The various lettering and stamps indicate that it dates from 1945 and the arrow tells us its origins are with the British Army. We assume RP Ltd. were the makers. A friend of our heritage collection called Leen Volwerk kindly donated this interesting item to the collection having used it for many years to hump gear around the Scottish Highlands.