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UNIFORMS, ARMS & EQUIPMENTS
VALISE EQUIPMENT
The individual load carrying equipment for the British soldier had changed dramatically over the years. With heavier and more numerous ammunition and requirements for entrenching tools, the distribution of these elements became a challenge for designers. After trials in 1868, the 1871 pattern valise equipment was introduced. This was the first to replace the time-honoured knapsack with a Valise and the large ammunition pouch with two pouches attached to a waistbelt. For most regiments the ammunition pouches were black leather, but for the Guards, they were white. This was the equipment used during the Zulu War of 1878 and the First Boer War of 1881.
In 1882 a new valise system was introduced. The waistbelt had loops on the rear to which were attached the braces that passed over the shoulder and and attached to the same sort of loop on the back of the ammunition pouches. The pouches themselves had loops which were slid onto the belt either side. Each pouch had a flap which closed by a strap which attached to a stud. The shoulder braces were attached to the valise by loops. The soldiers' mess-tin was placed in a leather container of the same shape and secured above the valise by a strap passing over to the top.
The last equipment change of the century came in 1888. This was universally called the Slade-Wallace equipment after the designers.
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Weapons & Field Equipment
