WW1 British Army Officer’s 08 Patt Sam Browne Set recovered from Mons

Framed set of British Army Officer’s 1908 Patt ,Sam Browne belt and cross strap. All leather with brass fittings including 1908 Patt Webley Holster. Found or recovered from a ditch just north of the town of Mons, Belgium.

This has been in the ground for over 100 years and to save it’s preservation it’s been framed as the piece is delicate due to age of the leather.

This is a remarkable piece from that early part of WW1, British Expeditionary Force of 1914.

The Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British Army attempted to hold the line of the Mons–Condé Canal against the advancing German 1st Army. Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the numerically superior Germans, they were eventually forced to retreat due both to the greater strength of the Germans and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army, which exposed the British right flank. Though initially planned as a simple tactical withdrawal and executed in good order, the British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks and took the BEF to the outskirts of Paris before it counter-attacked in concert with the French, at the Battle of the Marne.