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Good Morning Everyone.......

For your viewing pleasure.....

As requested on a previous thread, here are a pair of pen knives that I have in my collection......

One Boer.......

and

One British named to SISTER E. M. EDWARDS, ANSR

Mike

Good Morning Everyone.....

I have been advised that there are 4 different versions of the Boer Pen Knife......

1. 2 Thin Blades (Shown)
2. 2 Thick Blades
3. 1 Thin Blade and Corkscrew
4. Corkscrew

Also the first two have been copied so you have to be careful......

Mike

Mike and others interested
That really is a nice little utility knife to the ANSR!
Many years ago, I did see the remains of one of those Boer pocket/pen knives (really only the side grips) recovered along with a rotted bandolier from a derelict humpy (rude hut) 'way out in the bush.
The mobilisation of so many men in the UK especially during the early part of 1900 would have been seen as an opportunity to market all sorts of stuff. Bearing in mind that the official schedule of a soldier's equipment did include a jack-knife and lanyard, some items gifted by a well-meaning relative would have had a short life.
However, attached is a trio of pics from the 3/1900 B@W Budget; illustrating a pen/utility knife supplied to the C.I.V. (actually referred to in the ad as the C.L.I.V.) and some other Volunteers. Made by the renowned Gun Maker, Thomas Turner and Sons, the knife did have some Official Patronage!








Regards to all
IL.

If anyone is interested, this just showed up.......

Mike

As issued to all members of the City Imperial Volunteers or the "Lord Mayor's Own", the Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry, and the Duke of Cambridge’s Own Imperial Yeomanry. Also presented to, amongst others, members of the Volunteer Active Service Company, Gordon Highlanders (50), East Grinstead members of the Volunteer Active Service Company, Royal Sussex Regiment (5), members of the Morayshire contingent, Volunteer Active Service Company, Seaforth Highlanders (44), members of the Granton-on-Spey contingent Volunteer Active Service Company, Seaforth Highlanders (11), and Inverness members of Lord Lovat's Scouts (4).

According to the Sheffield Independent (27 Sep 1902), 150,000 of these knives were sent to the front. It is surprising, therefore, that they rarely appear on the market.







Black and White Budget, 3 March 1900, p. 8

An excellent knife, originally designed for the C.L.I.V. but since supplied to the Volunteers of the Gordon Highlanders, the Yorkshire Yeomanry, and the Duke of Cambridge’s Own, has been manufactured by Messrs Thomas Turner and Co., of Sheffield. It is called the “Lord Mayor’s Own Knife”, and has received the approval of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, who says that he is “highly satisfied with the knife, and thinks it quite the right thing for the purpose”. It measures four inches in length when closed, and consists of a good strong blade, an effective tin-opener and a strong square pincer, which can be used as a leather borer, machine spiker, or a horse-hook. The price is five shillings and sixpence.


The Sketch, 7 March 1900

The “Lord Mayor’s Own Knife” – such as his Lordship presumably uses at his frugal lunch – is a substantial piece of cutlery, superbly finished by the well-known Sheffield firm of Messrs Thomas Turner and Co. It has, no doubt, proved already most serviceable in South Africa to the City of London Imperial Volunteers. It has a stag haft, a strong blade of finest steel, a tin-opener, and leather-borer. To the credit of Messrs Thomas and Co. be it said that they presented one of these singularly strong and useful knives to each man in the two squadrons of the Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry. Lord Aberdeen had two hundred and fifty for presentation to the Volunteers of the Gordon Highlanders. H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge also selected this pattern for presentation to the Company of Imperial Yeomanry which was raised under the style of “The Duke of Cambridge’s”.


Newcastle Courant, 31 March 1900

In January last Messrs Thomas Turner and Co. registered an emigrant or colonial knife containing a folding can opener and a leather-borer. It was designed, in the first instance, for the Lord Mayor’s Own Volunteers, and a thousand knives were supplied. Messrs Turner, to their credit, presented each member of the Yorkshire Yeomanry contingent with the same knife, two hundred having been prepared for this purpose.


Sheffield Independent, 27 September 1902

The chapter on pen and pocket cutlery, for instance, contains the following interesting reference to one of the specialties of the firm: –

The most noticeable of these knives is the one known as the “C.I.V.”, or the “Lord Mayor's” knife, in as much as it was first made for the City Imperial Volunteers, and has been supplied from Suffolk Works to no fewer than 150,000 of the British or Colonial troops on service in South Africa. In addition to a strong blade, the knife has a square pike, which will punch a hole in a leather strap, remove a stone from a horse's hoof, or make a hole in a board an inch thick, and it is provided also with a tin opener. This was the idea of a member of the present firm who had been in South Africa, and, in view of the fact that so much food was being sent to the troops in tins, was led to wonder what would happen when the soldiers received their tins and found that the tin openers which ought to accompany them had got mislaid, or were at some more or less distant spot. An impression prevailed that, in such circumstances as these, a soldier would open the tin with his bayonet; but there were obvious disadvantages and dangers in this arrangement, not only for the bayonet, but for the man as well. The suggestion, therefore, that a strong tin opener should be added to the pocket knives sent out to the seat of war was adopted, and when the knives were ordered for the Duke of Cambridge's Own, the Duke described them as absolutely the best and most useful knife he had seen, while Major-General Mackinnon, of the C.I.V., described the tin opener in the pocket knife as invaluable, and quite as useful as the blade.









An excellent article on British ABW knives can be found HERE. In this, the author describes the above knife as follows:

Collectable Antique Sheffield Knives [C.A.S.K.]

Thomas Turner Pattern 6041 – the “Lord Mayor’s Own” knife – also variously referred to as the ‘C.I.V.’ [i.e. City Imperial Volunteers] knife, or the ‘C.L.I.V’. [i.e. City of London Imperial Volunteers] knife.

This is the best known of the four knives displayed in the Thomas Turner & Co. 1902 trade catalogue, wherein it is described as “Blade, tin opener and leather borer. As supplied to the City Imperial Volunteers”. The Registered Design number stamped on the pile side tang of the blade is “Rd. No. 351515” which indicates the date of registration of the design as early 1900. The blade face is stamped “LORD MAYOR’S OWN”, the mark side tang of the blade is stamped “THOMAS TURNER & Co. SHEFFIELD” together with T. Turner mark and the word “ENCORE” stamped at right angles. The tin opener is stamped “SHEFFIELD OIL THE JOINTS”. This is a high-quality knife with brass liners and a nickel-silver shackle and is the only small clasp knife detailed herein that does not have a sheepfoot blade that was a distinctive feature of Boer War clasp knives.

The three known variants of the T. Turner Pattern No. 6041 are:

1. The ‘Lord Mayor's Own’ knife, possibly limited to the single contract by the City of London for the City (of London) Imperial Volunteers, and only manufactured by Thomas Turner & Co. A high-quality knife with brass liners and a nickel-silver shackle, and distinctive due to its spearpoint blade whereas almost all other Boer War clasp knives had a sheepfoot blade – apart from the square-pointed Royal Navy knife described previously.

2. The military contract C.I.V. version, has similar design characteristics to the above, except for the sheepfoot blade, steel liners, copper shackle, and the W↑D stamping. The overall length closed of 4 inches (10.1cm), the stag handles, the sheepfoot blade and the steel liners are also common characteristics of the other three knives shown in the Thomas Turner 1902 catalogue. Note that a knife is held in an Australian collection which is identical to the 'military contract' knife described above except that it lacks any W↑D stamping.

3. ‘The Lord Mayor Knife’, a commercial version of 1. above and identical in construction except for the stamping on the blade face. Examples by both Thomas Turner and Wingfield Rowbotham are known.

Based on the statement in "Black and White Budget" [see above] that the knife was “… originally designed for the C.L.I.V. but since supplied to the Volunteers of the Gordon Highlanders, the Yorkshire Yeomanry, and the Duke of Cambridge's Own”, it appears probable the ‘Lord Mayor’s Own’ knife was the original version and that the more utilitarian military contract variant (i.e. steel liners and copper shackle rather than brass liners and nickel-silver shackle) came later.




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